We have reduced God to a creature just like ourselves. We assume that He will be flattered by our praise and angered by our criticism. So we constantly try to appease Him so that we get what we want. We think that, just like we barter things with our fellow beings, we can barter with God too. This is how we trade with Him.

“You make me successful in my business, I promise to construct a temple”.

“If you cure me of my disease, I will provide one meal to the poor”

“Get me a job and I will go on a pilgrimage”.

Would God deserve to be God if He were to yield to such childish gestures?

Even our parents give us what they can and what they feel we deserve without expecting anything in return. The parent gives unconditional love, feeds and clothes the child without any ulterior motive. The moment the mother senses that the child needs her, she rushes to the child and attends to it without first asking what the child will give her in return. How then can we expect our Divine Creator to decide to help us only after checking out what we have to offer?

Begging and bartering apart, people even resort to threatening God to get what they want. “Cure my child of its illness or I will stop believing in you.” They probably assume that God will be frightened at the prospect of one less believer and that He will rush to do the needful. Absurd, isn’t it?

So instead of putting in the required work to get something done, we try to make deals with God. Have you heard of the story where the wheels of a man’s cart get stuck in the mud, in a forest? This man is a firm believer in God and guess what he does ! He sits in prayer asking God to come to his rescue. What do you think, will God come to his rescue? Of course not! Instead of rolling up his sleeves and working to get the wheels out, in his laziness, he tries for the easy way out, assign the responsibility to God. Our elders were right in coining the proverb “Heaven helps those who help themselves.”

It is only the human species where the parents are not ready to let go of the child even when grown up and want to keep helping the child. That is the reason probably we expect God to the same.

Instead of indulging in this childish behavior, it would be more apt to recite the ‘Serenity’ prayer written by theologian Reinhold Niebuhr.

“God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And wisdom to know the difference.”

Or as another philosopher put it,

“For every ailment under the sun,
There is a remedy, or there is none;
If there be one, try to find it;
If there be none, never mind it.”

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