Ahead of Time

As the stack grew higher, the amount of orders came in like a flood. Stony Broadhouse and Link Christopher kept stacking the money.

“So he’s an on time God?” Broadhouse asked.

“Yes he is!” Christopher answered.

“I know one thing. I would not serve a god that was ‘on time.’ If you’re on time, you’re late. I would like my god to be fifteen minutes prior.”

“It’s just an expression….” Christopher replied.

“It’s one that people take very seriously. They even make songs about it. They say, ‘He may not be there when you want him, but he’ll be there right on time.’ That’s a sad kind of sovereign being if you ask me. If you don’t care enough to value time in an individual’s life, how can you be a protector and provider?”

“I think you’re looking a little too far into this. You’re making a deep point about something trivial.”

“Trivial? People base their entire lives around this. They teach their children all of this stuff. The grandest irony is that no one calls the biggest cult, faith, a cult.”

“That’s a matter of opinion,” Christopher said.

“No, it’s the goddamn truth. If you want to know what’s destroying the world, it’s not the idea of a God, it’s the idea that people take it seriously. Whole wars have been waged, millions have been slaughtered, lives have been half-lived all in the name of the unknown and unknowable.”

“So people believe. So what? What’s it to you?”

“It’s only meaningful to me in the fact that I respect the believer. I salute him or her who expresses faith. What I can’t stand is an agnostic. Pick a side. There’s a vestige of honor in being a believer. But agnostics fly in international waters on a plane not equipped for landing on water, unsure whether they should skim the water or remain in the air.”

“I believe.”

“I know you do. That’s why you come in here at all hours of the day saying, ‘I’m late, I know.’ You’re just like you’re god; you’re tardy to the party and want to claim that you work. Clearly you’re mistaken.”

The two men stacked the money ever higher. In the way that they labored, it seemed as though they seamlessly placed each order in the correct spot and kept going. Their movements looked calculated and designed.

“So you don’t believe in a designer of all this?” Christopher asked.

“All what?”

“All this around you. Everything that exists. You don’t think all of this just popped into being do you?”

“I hold the conviction that what is there is there. Anything else is superfluous.”

“I just can’t agree with that. Jesus set all this in motion. He was in Genesis with the Father creating.”

“Now there’s a point of contention. Why are there so many benevolent things in the world? Someone who knew he would be treated like raw meat on a post would have definitely made the given much uglier. Scholars argue all day about what’s the best faith. Which one is it? Is it one of the Abrahamic ones? People busy themselves trying to answer burning questions when the answers are right in front of them.”

“And what’s that?”

“There is no God. If, however, you decide to believe in one, remain resolute on your square and know that choosing a designation warrants admiration.”

“It’s whatever, man. I know there’s a God.”

“Well if God had ever been a defendant in any just court of law, how would he hold up? What proof is there of his existence? What evidence could he admit?”

Christopher stopped his toiling and looked up at the ceiling. The light gave a spectacular glare. “I guess none.”

“You’re ahead of time on that one!”