God for the Day

As a woman of faith, being asked to write about being made God for the day feels slightly blasphemous, but at the same time reminds me of a period of time when I was in my early twenties where I was struggling with my faith. “If I was God…” was a common refrain as I tried to square the circle of my faith in who God was, and the difficulties of my reality. As someone who is self-employed I am aware that my financial reality may be becoming scarily reminiscent of that period as the coronavirus goes from containment to social distancing – which is problematic in people development.

Anyway, to the task in hand.

If I were God who would I have on my cloud and why?
I love the writings of Marianne Williamson and to have the chance to sit and chat with her for 24 hours uninterrupted would be marvellous. To chat to anyone uninterrupted for any length of time would be a novelty to be honest. Her poem “Our Deepest Fear” a cornerstone of my professional practice:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness
That most frightens us.

We ask ourselves
Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? 
Actually, who are you not to be? 
You are a child of God.

Your playing small
Does not serve the world.
There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking
So that other people won’t feel insecure around you.

We are all meant to shine,
As children do.
We were born to make manifest
The glory of God that is within us.

It’s not just in some of us; 
It’s in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,
We unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we’re liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.

What miracle would you perform?
If I could perform one miracle, it would be change the economic system of the world and the mindsets and attitudes of people that think it is okay to have a system that is unfair and inequitable. My miracle would be to institute an economic system that delivers an outcome where everyone is looked after, poverty is eradicated, societal problems proactively tackled and that everyone would benefit equally from the wealth created by human ingenuity and effort… and that people saw their effort as purposeful with everyone willing to work hard to enhance society as a whole. Well you did say miracle…

Who or what would you send a thunderbolt on and why?
Trump, I am not sure that needs an explanation as to why, but I despise everything about him.

Who would you make a saint and why?
I say regularly that my husband polishes his Halo on a daily basis and therefore he is definitely worthy of canonisation. In March 2020 we celebrated our 20 year anniversary and I can honestly say that I love being married to my husband more today than I did when we got married. He is my rock. As someone who often has to travel and stay away due to my work, he keeps the homestead fire burning and is incredibly supportive of my wacky adventures. He gets the kids up in the mornings and puts them to bed at night. And after I quit cooking after one too many complaints from the kids about their food, he does the lion’s share of the cooking. We were described as chalk and cheese on our wedding day, with seemingly little in common but we are also best mates and we can still chat into the wee small hours about everything and nothing.

Other Godly things
There are two other things that I would like to do as God for the Day. The first would be to transform the education system so it focused on release individual talent rather than ticking boxes and instituting artificial standards. Instead, I would create a system where individual talent was celebrated and developed effectively. The second would be to transform attitudes towards those with “disabilities” in whatever guise that is and ensure there is access to support and advice for families; whether it is a mental health disorder, physical disability or something like autism or ADD. With two children on the autistic spectrum one of the things I have noticed is that (a) their challenges are often dismissed, so getting support is a constant battle and (b) their behaviour is considered ‘bad’ or ‘difficult’ rather than treated with empathy and support. That is something I would definitely change.