Blog – 12-14-16
Have you ever said to yourself something similar to this, “Wow, I would never do something like that!”
Well, I have. And recently life taught me a little lesson about things I think I would never do.
Things like losing your license…And realizing it only when you go to look for it at airport security.
Yes, my friends, that’s how I started my day on Sunday.
I wrote last week about my friend’s funeral. Somehow I got through singing at the funeral (thanks for everyone who prayed, it worked!) and raced to my rearranged flight to Nashville. The first leg was great, right on time. I would arrive in Nashville at 6:30, just in time for a 7:00 rehearsal! Life should be good, right.
Wrong!
My flight out of Chicago got delayed an hour and a half, so now I’m landing at 8:00, have to get my rental car and get to the rehearsal hall ASAP. I’m rushing, stressing, and harried, filled with emotions from the day, as you can imagine.
In my rushing, I believe I failed to put my driver’s license away after renting the car and simply put it in the back pocket of my jeans. Then forgot about it!
Really? That’s incredibly irresponsible, I think to myself. You usually travel really well. What on earth is wrong with you? Who would do something that?
Me.
As I went through the scenario in my head on Sunday at the airport and realized what had happened, where I had misplaced it, and deduced that it probably fell out of my jeans at some point in the rushing, I quickly started praying, “God, I really want to get home today. Help!” Through the grace of God, the kind TSA officer realized I was not a terrorist and just a crazy creative person. He used the various forms of ID I had on me, escorted me personally through the check line, and did a very thorough search of my person and my luggage. And let me on the plane!
I believe this experience was a little lesson in grace.
The lesson, I believe, goes much deeper than the issue of losing my license. It goes to the judgment that can well up inside my soul when I hear about someone making a similar mistake or making a bad decision or falling down and failing. It shot a big huge hole in the belief I sometimes get that I “would never do something like that.”
I have and I did.
We all live the same life Paul, the pillar of faith, did. He wrote in in Romans 7:15, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” I never want to lose my gloves, my glasses, my license, but I do. I never want to hurt a friend or loved one with my words, but I do. I never want to miss out on an opportunity to show God’s love to someone in need, but I do.
And I know you do as well.
I pray that the next time we witness someone making a mistake or acting irresponsibly we will have a spirit of understanding rather than a spirit of condemnation. I pray that the subtle pangs of judgment that rise up in our souls will quickly be replaced with a spirit of understanding as we remember the unending grace our loving Father lavishes on us. I pray we stop to think about what that person might be going through that makes them distracted and forgetful.
I pray that the minute I tell myself “I would never do something like that,” I remind myself that I already did!
Hugs and love,
~Jill