Does God Exist??

For more than the last forty years, I have enjoyed those periodic debates and arguments than you can get into on the subject of "Does God Exist?" Before you jump to a conclusion, I will tell you that I have argued both sides of the issue. Given my debating skills, I have covered both sides successfully. If you read this blog regularly, you know that I have recently joined Buffalo Presbyterian Church. So you would assume that you can count me in on the "Yes, God exists" side. So why am I writing this? As with everything else in my life, there's a story.

My keyboarding skills are abysmal, so I will give you a brief background. We have a retired military guy at the restaurant who works a couple of days a week. He has worked off and on for more than fifteen years. We have problems with him losing his temper sometimes, but on Wednesday night he went over the edge. I genuinely like him, so it is a little difficult for me to tell this story. Rather than type the whole story, I am just copying the body of an e-mail that I sent a friend in which I related the story. I was on the phone with this friend when the incident started. I have omitted the cook's name and changed the other names.

"We have had some problems with #### and his temper in the past, but nothing like today. He was a maniac!! He was yelling at me about Bill being in the kitchen. I explained that Bill was fixing his meal like all of the other cooks. Then he started yelling at me telling me that Bill was not on the schedule and that he had a problem with him. I responded that Bill was on the schedule and that he (####) needed to get over his problem. At that point, he went berserk. He approached me and shoved (hit, pushed) me in the chest with both of his hands. He hit me hard enough to knock me back a couple of feet to where my back hit the wall. My chest is still a little sore now, several hours later.

Here's the fascinating part for me. When I called you a few minutes earlier, I sat down in the office. My gun was in my back pocket, so I moved it to the front pocket to be more comfortable sitting while we talked. After #### shoved me, I stepped back towards him and put my hand on my gun. #### was standing less than a foot from me with his fists balled up. I realized that if I pulled my gun out, I would have to shoot him. A threat to shoot would not stop him, I was going to have to shoot him. At that range, with the type of bullets that I shoot, he would have died. Incredibly enough, at that point I became unbelievably calm. I took my hand off of my gun. I told him to go home and not to come back. He continued to scream, but I paid little attention. By that point, I was more concerned about employees and customers than I was about ####. He stormed out.

What does all of this mean? It means that #### is alive and others unhurt because at the instant my hand went to my gun, something calmed me. I was able to maintain control of the situation and keep everyone safe.

Was it God? For most of my life I have been able to debate, on an intellectual level, whether God exists. Don't worry, I have always been able to win either side of that argument. Tonight's incident eliminated that argument for me. God was in that kitchen tonight. I don't know if he was watching out for #### or Bill or me, but he was in that kitchen."

Well, that's my story. Yes, I believe that there is a God.