I only needed three items at the store, most importantly, food for our 8 month old puppy, Bella. She was completely out of food so a trip to the store was necessary, unless you believe it is okay to go a day without giving your dog some food. I don’t normally go to Target, but it was on my way home so I thought I would stop in just to purchase the few items. My first indication that this would not be a good idea was the crowded parking lot; however, I suppressed the feelings and ventured inside. The lines did look a little long but I thought that they would open a few more lines by the time I was ready to check out. I grabbed a cart, you know the one that always pulls to the right, and wandered around the store until I found the three items on my list – deodorant, Izze (my wife loves these), and the puppy food. I returned to the checkout area but noticed that it was still pretty busy so I scanned all the lines to see which one looked the shortest. After making a decision, I committed myself to a line. There were only three people in front of me. The cashier checked out the first and second person quickly, but then I noticed the guy in front of me began separating his purchases into three different transactions. I remained calm. When the cashier finished scanning the first transaction, he politely asked if they would like to save 5% by opening a credit card. Their eyes lit up and they agreed that opening a credit card was an opportunity they could not refuse. The cashier politely looked at me and said, “It’s going to be a few minutes.” I smiled back and said, “No problem.” I was lying. I was getting impatient. The people behind me began line jumping which, in my opinion, should be outlawed. Once you’ve committed to a line, you should not be able to depart from it. I was getting restless. Finally, a young cashier came to the rescue and opened up a register right beside our line and said, “I can help the next person.” The people behind me also heard the offer and the race was on. They began pulling their cart in that direction, but I grew up in Charlotte, NC, home of NASCAR and rednecks, so there was no way they were going to check out before me. When they saw that I was serious, they said, “Oh, you only have a few items. You can go in front of us.” WHAT! “Don’t you even think about giving me permission to go in front of you when it is rightfully my turn!” I didn’t say that, but I sure was thinking it. I just smiled and said, “Are you sure? Thank you so much.” I was lying.
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Wouldn’t it be great if every circumstance, obstacle, or question had an obvious explanation? The longer I live, the more I realize that lots of things have no human explanation or easy answer. As a Christian I know that the normal response or thought pattern is, “God knows what He is doing.” Don’t get me wrong, I wholeheartedly believe that God knows what He is doing in each and every circumstance; however, it is hard to wrestle with the human side of it. The older I get and the more I see, the more I’m convinced that I will die with more questions, than answers. Am I okay with that? I’m not sure I can answer that with any amount of certainty, but I do know that my soul yearns for something better than this life can offer. I yearn for everything to be put back together…to work the way God intended it to work. As I see the suffering, injustice, and brokenness around me, I long for my friends and family to be redeemed, to be restored, and to know what it means to live without pain and suffering.
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As I pulled up to the stoplight which was changing from yellow to red, I noticed a little white and brown-spotted dog by himself sitting on the street corner. When the light turned red and I had come to a complete stop, the dog marched across the street as if she had done this a thousand times. Needless to say, I was impressed with the dog’s confidence so I grabbed my phone and snapped a picture of this dog as she crossed the street without incident. Granted, it’s not like the dog was walking a tightrope across a busy street, but it amazed me that she (I’m only assuming it was a female because she was smart) knew when to walk across the street. Although this dog looked liked she knew what she was doing, I do know that it is not safe for dogs to be navigating the real world by themselves. We all understand this. That is why when you see a dog running around by himself you think, “That dog is going to get hit by a car!”
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Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend my daughter’s spelling bee at her elementary school. She was among the top spellers in her school and the spelling bee is a way to determine the best speller in the school. I arrived right on time only to find a gymnasium packed with the entire school as well as the parents of the ones participating in the spelling bee. I found a seat and felt the anticipation building as they entered the “practice round.” Most of the words were easy and provided an opportunity for the kids to introduce themselves and shake out the nerves. After finishing the practice round, the real competition got under way. I’m not sure what came over me, but I must admit that I kept hoping for each contestant to get hard words so that they would misspell them. I know it is wasn’t right, but I couldn’t help pumping my fist when a kid got it wrong. I’m exaggerating. I didn’t literally fist pump, but I kept playing it out in my mind…over and over. Of course, when it was my daughter’s turn, I welled up with pride and hoped that she would get it right. I really did feel guilty for wishing bad on someone else’s child, but I wanted to make sure that my child was the best.
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Everyone has problems. Everyone. I don’t care how confident a person looks or how some families seem to exude perfection, every individual and every family has problems. Some people are just better at covering up their problems. After working as a pastor for 15 years, there are two types of people concerning the problem issue: people who try to act like they don’t have any problems and people who think that they are the only ones with problems. I wish these two groups could meet each other.
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My dog is currently wearing a cone around her head. I absolutely hate it, although, it is possible that I have always made fun of and laughed at dogs who had to wear unsightly lampshades around their neck. All kidding aside, I do feel sorry for her as I listen to her whining and crying, and I even wonder if she will break her neck attempting to sling it off of her head. Why is she wearing a cone, you ask? Since we have no desire for puppies in our near future (or ever), Leah and I decided that it was time to get our eight-month old maltipom fixed. The neighbor’s Chihuahua has wandering eyes. Following the surgery, we knew that we would have several challenges; however, the biggest challenge was to protect her incision and the stitches which held the incision together. Puppies are not naturally prone to leave their stitches alone. They like to lick and chew, which is not good for an incision. Enter the e-collar or the “lampshade, as I like to call it. This cone is used to restrict the dog’s access to the incision, which is necessary for proper healing. Although I hate restricting my puppy, I know I am guarding her from causing herself further harm. She doesn’t understand it, but I do.
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Clark Griswold is not really my neighbor, but there are several people in our neighborhood who have crazy good light displays for Christmas and they remind me of Clark Griswold. The guy directly across the street from me has fantastic decorations and I estimate that probably 50 or more cars drive by his house every night to see them. No one ever stops by our house to see the pretty lights because we don’t have any. Before you accuse me of being Ebenezer Scrooge or the Grinch, let me explain. Although I love to decorate the inside of our house, I am not the gifted type for exterior decorations…and I am 95% confident that decorating the outside of my house would end with me burning it down! However, just because I am not gifted like Clark Griswold, doesn’t mean that I can’t enjoy his house decorations.
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I was only inside the store maybe 10 minutes but as I exited and entered the parking lot, I found myself simply baffled and unable to locate where I had parked my car. My first thought of action was to set off my car alarm, but I was fearful that an overbearing alarm would draw more attention to my plight. “Where in the world did I park my car,” I said to myself. Rather than standing still in the parking lot and looking lost, I kept moving. Although my direction was uncertain, it was key in finding my car because standing still only gave me a limited perspective. As I moved from aisle to aisle and scanned the tops of the cars I finally located my car. I let out a sigh of relief and moved quickly to my car.
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There are a lot of things I’ve been throughout my life, but pregnant has never been one of those things…unless you count what happened to me the other night. Last week I was pretty sick and in the middle of the week, I also began struggling with vertigo, a sensation of dizziness (for those of you who are not hypochondriacs students of WebMD). After a quick visit to the doctor and then filling some prescriptions, I settled in for a good night of sleep. Somewhere in the midst of my sleeping cycle, I started having a dream and I truly believe it was due to the vertigo medicine. Most of the time I do not remember what I dreamt about, but this dream was impossible to forget. All I remember is that I was being rushed into a hospital room where a doctor and several nurses were awaiting me. A feeling of panic came over me as I realized that I was in the hospital…to give birth. I was pregnant. The doctor looked me right in the eye and said, “We are going to use the pull, twist, and pull method.” All I could think was, “Oh, NO you’re not!” Fortunately, I woke up before the birth actually occurred, although I was a little disappointed because I will never know if it was a boy, girl, or even twins.
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I didn’t really feel like mowing my yard today. Since this summer has been extremely dry, I’ve settled into the habit of NOT mowing my dead grass…and I kind of like it; however, the rain over the last couple days has resulted in some patches of green so I figured it was time to dust off the lawnmower and attempt to make the front yard look halfway decent. After pulling the mower out of the garage, I opened the cap to find an empty gas tank. No problem. I’m sure I have some extra gas in my three gas cans. Nope. I thought about siphoning gas from my neighbor’s truck giving up for the night since it was already 8:30pm and there was limited daylight left, but I thought I could squeeze it in before it got too dark. I grabbed my wallet inside the house and pulled out of the driveway and realized that I had forgotten one of the empty gas cans. I threw the car into park and ran back to the house to get the gas can. When I finally made it to my local gas station, I was mad. Did you know the price of gas is almost $4.00 a gallon? So, I’m paying nearly $4.00 a gallon to keep my neighbor’s happy mow my half-dead grass. My life was beginning to feel like a rotting sore. I finally made it home and began mowing the front yard, but by the time I got to the back yard I could hardly see what I was doing because it was so dark. I’m sure when I wake up in the morning there will be a tic-tac-toe design perfect stripes.
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