God, Faith, and Reason

PREFACE

I never saw God, nor do I pretend to have any special insights. What you will see in this book are snapshots of God, not a complete film. This book is presented in an omnibus style and does not have to be read in precise, sequential order. What you will see is one man’s glimpses of God—images along the road of life. I do not represent myself as a theologian or a guru. There are no cheap thrills here for the spiritually bankrupt masses. It is my scrapbook of the highest power through dreams, memories, and stories, much like the ancient texts.

My last book was a number one New York Times best seller, without any support from the media. It’s my seventh book in a row that made the New York Times list, which is the gold standard of best-seller lists. Everyone reads it. So my publisher was thrilled. The people there said, “We want your next book.”

But I said, “Hold on, now. I’m not doing another political book. I told my audience the last one would be my final political book.” God gave me all my previous success. I knew my next book had to give something back to God.

My publisher agreed. They like me, and they figure that whatever I do, people will accept. I don’t know if that’s true. I don’t know if my audience is ready for a book from me about the Bible and God. But I wrote it. I had to.

I know a lot of people who are not religious but say, “You know, it’s terrible. We were once a great Christian nation, and the churches are empty and the mosques are filling up.” They always want someone else to go to church. People who don’t go to church don’t really believe in God. They want someone to believe for them. They cry, “Oh, why are the churches empty?” To which I reply, “Well, why don’t you go?” They aren’t religious, but they wish other people were. Well, you are the other people.

As I said many years ago, we’ve gone from St. Christopher medals to dream catchers in one generation. When I was a kid, it seemed as though every other car had a Catholic owner. They had little St. Christopher’s statues on the dashboard. Myself, I didn’t have one, but I liked that there were people who believed in God. And one day, I woke up, it was post-Obama and there were dream catchers hanging off mirrors. There are so many things hanging off mirrors, I don’t know how people can see through their windshields. Mirrors and beads and voodoo. There is voodoo paraphernalia hanging off automobile mirrors and the country is melting down. It’s total anarchy.

So what I’m trying to get at is that none of us lasts forever. There’s an hourglass. You turn an hourglass upside down and you watch the sand trickle through. Well, in my case—and I’m not trying to pull a tearjerker on you—there’s more sand on the bottom than there is on the top. There was a time when there was more sand on the top than on the bottom and I thought I had unlimited time to do everything. I don’t. No one does.

What I’m saying to you is, I’ve just knocked another ball out of Yankee Stadium. It’s called Trump’s War. What more do I need to prove to myself or anyone else? I began as a writer. Fundamentally, that’s what I am. But behind the writer, there’s something else.

But this is very important for you to know: When I was down and out, I had to go down to the core of my being and reach out to the man upstairs, to put it colloquially. And I had to ask Him to save me.

It didn’t happen like a boom went off or lightning struck or Charlton Heston appeared in my living room with a ticket to heaven. I had to keep asking for it. And it took me twenty years to climb out of that hole. See, God helps those who help themselves. He doesn’t give you anything. By reaching out to God, maybe you can help yourselves.

I don’t always practice what I preach. For example, I occasionally eat high-fat cheese, even though I’ve written health books. Once a year, I’ll eat a hot dog. Twice a year, I’ll eat a steak, even though I know it’s poison for me. I know it. We all do things we know aren’t good for us, but we do them anyway. It’s the same spiritually, right?

Recently I was having bad dreams. I can sleep through them. I’ve learned how to live with that my whole life. It’s nothing to me. I can sleep through the worst nightmare on Earth. I say to myself, “Oh, another one. That was great.” I can’t wait to go to sleep and see where my mind will take me tonight. What horror show awaits me?

I’d go to sleep, and it was like nightmare movies every night. I wouldn’t wake up, though, because I learned a long time ago that it doesn’t really matter if you have nightmares, if you sleep through them. It’s like a bad movie. I thought, “Wait a minute, there must be a way for me to deal with this.”

One day, I opened an ancient Hebrew prayer book that a very religious man had given me. There’s a one-paragraph prayer that I’ve been reading for a while now. It’s called “Prayer Before Retiring at Night.” Is there magic? If religion doesn’t work, it’s of no use at all. If religion has no effect on your life, there’s no reason to go to church or synagogue. In other words, if it doesn’t make you feel better, what good is it? What, are you waiting for the next world? That’s a big gamble, my friend. That’s a huge gamble, to throw away all of life’s pleasures on the chance that you’re going to be rewarded in the next world. You begin to sound like those who think they’re going to get seventy-two virgins, or whatever the number is, for killing you.

I can’t live for the next world. I don’t even know if there is a next world. This is the only earth I know of, and this earth is the only heaven that I know of. This is also the only hell I know of. But I figure that if this stuff has worked for others for thousands of years, there must be something to it. Are all those millions stupid? Are they all idiots?

Some people say they are. They say, “Religion is for idiots.” Really? All those millions of people through history who were and are religious, they’re all idiots? The ones criticizing them are the only smart ones?

I’m telling you all this because my dreams have stopped. At least the bad ones have. I sleep like a baby now. “Prayer Before Retiring at Night” is better than any herbal tea I’ve ever taken. Can I give you one paragraph? It begins, “Master of the Universe, I hereby forgive anyone who has angered or vexed me.” That’s the first thing you say. I say it, and the dog looks as though there’s a different person in the room. He thinks I’m crazy. He sees me standing near the mirror with the book, and he’s looking at me like, “What the heck are you doing now?”

“Master of the universe, I hereby forgive anyone who has angered or vexed me or sinned against me, either physically or financially, against my honor or anything else that is mine, whether accidentally or intentionally, inadvertently or deliberately, by speech or by deed, in this incarnation or in any other. May no man be punished on my account. May it be your will, Lord, my God, and God of my fathers, that I shall sin no more nor repeat my sins. Neither shall I again anger you nor do what is wrong in your eyes. The sins I have committed erase in your abounding mercies but not through suffering or severe illnesses.”

They cover all bases there. “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable before you Lord, my strength and my redeemer. Our Father, let us lie down in peace. Our King, raise us up to do a good life and peace. Improve us…”

Do you see what I’m saying? In other words, you’re supposed to forgive anyone who insulted you or robbed you or sinned against you in this life or any other. It allows you to go to sleep and not think about those things. Now, there’s much more to this prayer before retiring at night, but I want to give you a little taste, in common parlance, of where my head is going. These are simple things that have calmed people for centuries and, in these anguishing times, it’s very important to share with you some of these ancient methods of calming the human soul.

These are perplexing times. These are times that produce anxiety, and in our society, everyone has their own way of trying to deal with it: run, exercise, take a pill, drink tea, meditate, do Pilates, have sex… who knows? These are all things people use to calm themselves down. But the prayer I shared with you is a palliative that has been with us since the Rock of Ages was written. I wanted to share it with you because it’s carried me through some very hard times. So, too, have many of the other experiences in the pages ahead.

This is not a “religious book.” It’s a quest and odyssey. You might ask why you should read someone else’s odyssey. By the time you’ve finished this book, I hope you will have found the answer.

In this book, I will draw upon my personal experiences, the personal experiences of others, with God, without God; but most important, I will draw upon my personal copy of the five books of Moses the Jewish Bible. I have had this book for well over forty years. It has hundreds of little yellow Post-it notes that I have attached as I’ve read it for solace. My hope is to do service to God who created all of us.