During his travels, a fabric merchant came upon another man who was under a barren tree at the side of the road.  This other man was stomping around and cursing up a storm.  His animals stood nearby, watching disinterestedly, as if they had seen all this before.  The angry man didn’t even register the approach of his fellow traveler.

The fabric merchant stopped near the tree and spoke up to greet the angry man:  “You there!  What seems to be the matter?”

“Seems?!!  Seems to be the matter?!!!” asked the angry man.  “Nothing seems to be the matter.  Everything actually is the matter!”

Chagrined, the merchant replied, “Come now!  Your situation can’t be so dire.  You appear to be uninjured.  You have your livestock, and it looks like they’re still carrying whatever it is you sell to make a living.  If you really do have some major problem unseen to me, you can always call upon me to help you or at least go find aid on your behalf.”

“No, no, no.  You don’t get it.  This is all God’s fault!”

“What is God’s fault?”

“All this.  Everything.  You’re in it.”

The fabric merchant was confused.  “In what?”

“Do you believe in God?” asked the angry man.

“Yes.” said the fabric merchant.

“Then you believe that God created us, everything…. all this.”

The fabric merchant saw where this was headed.  “I see where you’re going with this, but I don’t see how this is anybody’s fault.  God may have created it, but is God responsible for every last disaster, minor and otherwise?”

Now the angry man smiled.  “Yes!  Yes, He is!”

The fabric merchant didn’t even bother to ask how the angry man knew this with such certainty.  “Well, so what are you doing now?  Being angry at God?”

“Yes.”  The angry man’s head waggled furiously.

“How long do you intend to stay angry?”

“As long as it takes.”