What If You Were God?
What if you were God? That’s quite a question, isn’t it? The only way it could be more open-ended is if we shortened it to “What if?” I’ve found that one of the best ways to understand a person is to put myself in their shoes… but what about a deity? (Non-theists, stay on the line; I’ll address your concerns in a minute.)
First, let’s get a few things straight: When I refer to “God,” feel free to substitute a suitable name of your preference; I’m attempting to be religion-independent here, so the only assumption I’m making is that God is some type of supernatural being with much more knowledge and power than any living thing on Earth. Creator, Source, Flying Spaghetti Monster… for our purposes, they’re all essentially the same. However, in order to learn anything from putting yourself in God’s shoes, you must assume that God has a consciousness. If you firmly believe that the universe does not (or did not) have a conscious creator, feel free to try and put yourself in the shoes of quantum physics or some other scientific principle… but I don’t guarantee it will be very enlightening.
From this point forward, the discussion will be biased toward a Biblical, Christian perspective. It’s not that you couldn’t make similar arguments based on any beliefs, but that this is the perspective about which I know the most. I strongly encourage you to look at your own belief system and compare it with your experiences. Do they agree, or are you following some blind belief (or non-belief) system simply because that’s what you were taught?
Let’s start with the basics, something to which many of us can easily relate — a highly addicting PC game called The Sims! 
The object of the game is to create families of digital people (fittingly called “Sims”) and control pretty much every aspect of their lives. You may build homes for them, guide them through various career tracks (or through school), facilitate their hobbies and their social lives… and even kill them, if that’s your style. You may also enable a “Free Will” option, which allows your Sims to control their own lives when you’re not doing it for them.
Interestingly enough, free will is also a major topic of confusion for pretty much anyone who’s ever debated religion and/or philosophy. Let’s put ourselves in God’s shoes by pretending that the world is one giant game of The Sims. This is where different personalities will come to different conclusions, but I’m going to give my own take. Based on my experience with Sims, I’ve found that they rarely do what I want them to do without my command. (”C’mon, Ttocs, your house is a mess, your very neat and tidy girlfriend is coming over in less than an hour, and you’re watching sci-fi!?”) I would love to be able to rely on the Free Will option and simply guide my Sims through the most fun parts of the game (night on the town, anyone?), but sometimes I’m afraid that they’ll burn down the house if I allow that. 
In a way, this is how I view God. I’m sure God’s job would be a heck of a lot easier if he could trust us to our own brains and just sit back, relax and watch us work wonders. But, being humans, we make mistakes; that’s when God has to give us little nudges in the right direction.
Occasionally, a person will become so stubborn (and/or blind) that even with God’s best efforts at a gentle nudge, that person just doesn’t get it (or doesn’t want to). Similar situations can occur in The Sims. For example, let’s say we have a college Sim who needs to study for today’s exam — yes, it’s after midnight. He’s exhausted and refuses to stay awake, despite your numerous commands to hit the books. In the Sim world, fixing this problem is cruel, but simple: Surround your Sim with four walls and a desk, and don’t give him any room to lie down and sleep. (Anyone who’s played The Sims will probably know that a Sim won’t actually study when he’s tired, even if you refuse to let him sleep. In this case, we would only end up with a very angry Sim who will still fail the test.) But you see my point — desperate times call for desperate measures. If it takes a double dose of divine intervention to pierce your thick skull, I don’t believe God has any qualms about providing it.
Understanding your beliefs is a very personal endeavor, and it would be nearly impossible for me to delve into every facet of putting yourself into the shoes of your favorite deity. However, I hope I’ve given you a starting point from which to ask the question, “What if I were God?“
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