Why Did God Pick Me to Talk to?

Philosopher Jerry L. Martin wonders, if God wanted to talk to someone, why would He pick me? His answer may surprise you. Jerry L. Martin, Ph.D., D.H.L. is former Chair, Department of Philosophy, University of Colorado at Boulder and Acting Chairman, National Endowment for the Humanities. He is currently a contributor to the Good Men Project and coordinator of the Theology Without Walls Project at the American Academy of Religion. TRANSCRIPT: When people hear about God speaking to me, they often ask me with a tone of suspicion, “Why you?” Well I ask myself, why me? There’s nothing special about me. Why didn’t God pick Charlton Heston, or one of these mystical types with x-ray eyes and flaming hair? You know, I’m just me, plain Jerry Martin. I’m the least likely person to hear a divine voice. I didn’t even believe in God. If you’re watching this YouTube, you’re probably a more likely candidate than I was. But then I’m assuming that we can have some idea of what GOD’s criteria are. You know, maybe he wanted a skeptic, somebody who would ask a lot of questions, I don’t know. Maybe He wanted someone not rooted in a particular religious tradition. That’s possible. Saw a guy on TV. He had never been a singer at all, had “a call” to become a professional religious singer. Go figure. You know what I think the key might be? Maybe I was the only one willing to accept the assignment. God might have asked a hundred other people, might have asked a thousand, whispered in their ears first. It may have been slim pickin’s when it got down to me. When I told a friend of mine, who’s an up and coming lawyer, my particular story, he said if it had happened to him, he would not have accepted the assignment. You know sometimes in life, you “volunteer,” you step forward only in the sense that everyone else steps back. The tone of suspicion, that I mentioned earlier, is that people think that I’m on some kind of ego trip. Well frankly, I was having a better ego trip pursuing a good career in D.C. No, this was more like a receiving a draft notice, “Congratulations, you have been selected.” When God drafts us for a particular assignment, it doesn’t mean we’re super duper. It just means HE has a job for us to do -- and there are a lot of divine jobs to go around. To create a world of love and compassion, of wisdom and understanding, God needs each and every one of us to follow His will, to pick up on our part of the assignment as best as we can discern it. Or as Abraham Lincoln put it so well, “to do the right, as God gives us to know the right.” You know, maybe, instead of asking somebody else, “Why you?”, it would be better to ask, “What do YOU want of me?” and direct the question a little higher up. [Go to: www.godanautobiography.com]