Blessed

Sometimes God let’s things go on a long time while he tries to teach you a lesson and sometimes only a matter of minutes before it smacks you in the face.
The same day that my car was broken in to I had run to CVS to pick up a couple things and while waiting in line, a little frustrated with God and definitely feeling very “Woe Is Me” I noticed that the man at the check out counter was taking quite a while to check out. Now everyone else was getting angry but I noticed that the clerk was a little embarrassed and that he and the man were trying to quickly count pennies while the line grew. I myself am not against paying for things with change now and again so I knew that it can sometimes take a while to count it all up, but as I watched the man search his pockets a second and third time to come up with more change I looked to the counter and saw that he wasn’t trying pick up a pack of gum or gallon of milk and just didn’t want to break a ten or use his debit card. This man was buying a roll of generic toilet paper. Just one roll. He was gathering together every bit of change that he could find to buy some toilet paper.

As I stood there, still two people back in line, wishing that I had had any cash on my (or change for that matter) the best I could tell is either they finally got to the total or the clerk gave up as he handed him back a couple dimes and he was on his way. Now for good reason my day thus far had been really bad. I only have a couple people here in Dallas that I know, so when something like the car being broken in to I just felt overwhelmed with the sense of being alone in this city. And to loose these things that I loved, and believe me I did not take them for granted one bit, it felt like one more blow that I just didn’t need. But then to stand in a line, just feet away from a man without even the necessities of life, all of a sudden the iPod or the GPS system (while things I love and still miss daily) did not seem all that important. I began to realize how blessed I am. Blessed that they didn’t steal my car, talk about feeling isolated in a city, what would I have done then? Blessed that I wasn’t in the car when they decided that they wanted the items. Blessed that I have a whole apartment full of other items that I really do love and make me oh so happy just to see them. They aren’t expensive, by any means, and I may never have that type of life, but I could name 100 material objects that I have that bring joy to my life. They would confuse you and make you laugh at me, but they do. Then put that aside and I could name about 30-40 people that I know or have known that have changed my life and thinking about them makes me feel enormously blessed.

I guess in the end possessions are just possessions. They are just there to crowd up your life and make things beautiful around you while you are living. People form your character. They help build your memories that you will reflect on for the rest of your life. But you can’t take the people or the memories or the possessions with you after you are gone so you have to maintain perspective on what really matters and live your life. So for today and as long as I can I am going to try to realize how blessed I really am, even though the things I had have been taken away. Maybe like Job, God has a plan to bring them back x’s 2, you never know.