In a “Calvin and Hobbes” comic strip it’s late November and young Calvin is waiting with his sled for the first big snowfall. He waits and waits but all he finds is brown grass … and no snow.
So he says, “If I was in charge, we’d never see grass between October and May.” Then, looking to the heavens, he says, “On ‘three,’ ready? One … Two … Three. SNOW!” Nothing happens and the little boy is downcast. Then he shouts to the heavens, “I said snow! C’mon! Snow!” Then shaking his fists he cries, “SNOW!” Now thoroughly disgusted with God’s failure, he says, “Ok then, don’t snow! See what I care! I like this weather! Let’s have it forever!”
But his defiance does not last. In the next frame we see Calvin on his knees offering this prayer: “Please snow! Please?? Just a foot! Ok, eight inches! That’s all! C’mon! Six inches, even! How about just six??” Then he looks to heaven and shouts, “I’m WAAIITING . .”
In the next frame we see him running in a circle, head down, fists clenched, making a little-boy sound which the artist spells out as “RRRRGGHHH.” That’s not an English word but every parent has heard it many times. Finally, Calvin is exhausted, his energy spent, his prayer unanswered, with snow nowhere in sight. In the final frame, he looks up at God and cries out in utter desperation, “Do you want me to become an atheist?”
There are many Christian people who feel just like that little boy, only they have prayed for things much more important than a few inches of snow but the end result has been the same. And in their frustration and despair they have cried out to God, “Do you want me to become an atheist?” Most of them haven’t, but some have.