Young Writers Society

Prompt #3; Challenging An Idea

My version of God looks like Morgan Freeman.

He is hardly anything like the pale God I learned of in my childhood, though they share the same words. My version of God has the deepest voice, the sort of voice meant for narrating. His voice is the thickest of honey, pouring straight off the comb, making even the blandest parts of the Bible fill with euphony of sounds. The age spots and flaws make His smile look even brighter: His hair is white, the white of my skin.

My faith was not always this way. As a young child, I attended a Church Group called AWANA’s, something I liked going to, if not mainly for the games and the candy. I went to multiple different Summer Bible Camps and attended Church with my neighbors. My family did not have a Church we went to weekly, but my life was still decorated with Bible verses on the edges, and that what was so difficult to me; I did not understand them. Of course, I was a bright child, not admitting this to myself until much later on, but beyond the words I could recite I could not find the God they told me was in them. I went to these things and I had fun, whispering the comforting words without reasoning with them.

My Father was raised Catholic, and my Mother had no name to her faith, but was determined to try them all on for size. We went to Quaker meeting, where I learned how to listen to God, but his voice was too quiet or I had not the patience to listen, and would go play in the loft instead. My Mother decided she liked she liked listening, and walked her family through the woods to try and find God. She would tell me that God made the trees and I would listen to the wind through the trees like the Quaker’s taught me how to and would think I could hear a voice. Was it whispering those old bible verses I had once memorized? Or was it wordless sound, a voice giving birth to my imagination? I am still not sure.

Every once in a while a movie about a modern Noah would come on TV. I would always forget what it was called- was in Evan Almighty? Or was his name Bruce?-but I would sit and watch it all the same. Morgan Freeman played God, and I loved the way he seemed clever and human and a mysterious deity. The more I would watch it, the more I would smile when Morgan Freeman playing God; and I decided, one day, that’s how I would want my idea of God to be.

I am always shifting, always changing my mind. Sometimes Bible verses come in comfort to me, the glossy pages of my Precious Moment’s Bible making me smile, and sometimes I am shocked by the pain believing in those words can cause. I take the prayers people offer me and, occasionally, offer my own, rare jewels in the palms of my small hands.

I believe I have a God who understands.

Things, Reviewers:

-Very few colleges in my state use the Common App. I'm applying to an out-of-state as well as an in-state that do. How is my understanding?

-I'm applying to a Quasi-religious school. (Not one where you have to be any sort of religious to be accepted, but still.) Is this an inappropriate topic?

-Feel free to tear apart grammar and whatever, especially my use of 'euphony'. 

Thank you! I know it's a bit early, but I have a lot of time on my hands, and I figured I might make the best I can out of it!