God to Mortals: Really?!

Special Installment: Ash Wednesday
The latest trendy putdown comes in the form of a question. It's a question that God might use in conversation with us.

Every so often, it happens. Someone you desperately love or deeply respect manages to do something impossibly dumb -- at least in your estimation. Your son decides to drop out of college to become a professional poker player. Your teenage daughter dents her car not 10 minutes after you toss her the keys. Your elderly dad reveals that he's spent most of your inheritance on products from the Home Shopping Network. You find out that your best friend is ditching his lovely wife for a co-ed he found on Facebook. Impossibly dumb.

If you're like most people, then when you're sideswiped by someone else's stupidity, your mind instantly begins to buy time for processing the craziness you've been presented. The only sentences you can muster are those that clamor for clarity and express your unbelief. You know, thoughtful and compassionate phrases like: "You're kidding me!?" "Say what?!" or "Shut up, you're lying!"

And of course everyone's favorite, the simple yet sufficient, "Really?!" As in,...