<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class="o-vr o-vr_12x" style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 60px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="c-feature" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.231;"><div class="c-feature-bd" style="margin: 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.3;"><div class=" isActive o-poem" data-view="PoemView" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative;"><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">God Letter</div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">Do I have to dress up or can I wear jeans? Dear Joaquin,<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">casual Sunday is a plus! Can a woman be fully present in heels?<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">Remember the other day at the shops, we saw the T-shirt that<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">read “Blessed” across the front? I know<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">you picked it up for me as a joke, but it made me pause. I think<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">I am blessed in the way <span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">I</span> understand people to mean it: having<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">good fortune. But this is where faith messes with my clean concept,<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">because practicing Christians don’t believe blessings come<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">out the clear blue sky. So here’s God again, all up in the Kool-Aid.<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">I’m dating myself, but I mean that He gets in the way of<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">spiritual minimalism. He is at once contained and uncontainable,<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">which, intellectually, is hard to understand. So being blessed<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">must require that one acts in such a way that presses God to bestow<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">blessings, which isn’t the same thing as good fortune, but I want<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">to believe that people are saying, “You have such good fortune,<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">I hope for good fortune, too,” because it means that no one is<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">preaching at me like, “You have good God-God,” “Father<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">God I hope He Gods for us, too,” “You got God?” Et cetera.</div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class=""><span style="font-style: inherit; text-indent: -1em;" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class=""><span style="font-style: inherit; text-indent: -1em;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- CM Burroughs </span></div><div style="font-size: inherit; font-family: inherit;" class=""><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; text-indent: -1em; font-size: inherit;" class=""><br class=""></span></div></div></div></div></div><div class="o-grid" style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 22px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div></div></body></html>