Monday, June 25, 2007
The sign at the parking garage read "Please take ticket with you". I pulled the ticket from the slot and laid it on my dashboard, then drove my car through the garage, thinking. Hmmm. Maybe people steal these from other vehicles for a cheaper rate. Hey, I don't make it downtown very often and crime is worse in this section of town than where I live.
I never even considered taking my ticket with me. I won't be in the City County building long and besides, I always lock my doors.
So I park my car (and lock my doors), then hike to the flight of stairs across the garage. I take the two flights down and the bridge over the street and that's where I see a curious looking little building. "Present parking tickets here" the sign reads.
I'm starting to feel a little dumb about leaving my ticket in the car. After all, the sign did say to take it with me. Why did I leave it? Would it have been so hard to stick it in my pocket and trust that the sign knew better than I did?
But the sign gave me no explanations for why I should change the way I ordinarily do things. A simple instruction wasn't enough. I wanted to know WHY. If it had told me I would be paying outside the garage, I would have gladly followed directions and saved myself from the long walk back to collect my ticket.
The situation made me reflect on spiritual things. How often had God given me instructions I failed to follow because they didn't make sense to me at the time? How many times had I ignored his signs thinking they didn't apply to me? Next time I receive instructions, I hope I remember this, because God rarely gives us the why when gives us the what. I guess that's where faith comes in.
I never even considered taking my ticket with me. I won't be in the City County building long and besides, I always lock my doors.
So I park my car (and lock my doors), then hike to the flight of stairs across the garage. I take the two flights down and the bridge over the street and that's where I see a curious looking little building. "Present parking tickets here" the sign reads.
I'm starting to feel a little dumb about leaving my ticket in the car. After all, the sign did say to take it with me. Why did I leave it? Would it have been so hard to stick it in my pocket and trust that the sign knew better than I did?
But the sign gave me no explanations for why I should change the way I ordinarily do things. A simple instruction wasn't enough. I wanted to know WHY. If it had told me I would be paying outside the garage, I would have gladly followed directions and saved myself from the long walk back to collect my ticket.
The situation made me reflect on spiritual things. How often had God given me instructions I failed to follow because they didn't make sense to me at the time? How many times had I ignored his signs thinking they didn't apply to me? Next time I receive instructions, I hope I remember this, because God rarely gives us the why when gives us the what. I guess that's where faith comes in.
8 Comments:
So true!
I would have done exactly the same thing as you, D! I think it's natural that we want to know WHY. And God doesn't always tell us. In fact, he USUALLY doesn't. LOL Talk about taking a step of faith sometimes!
Amen, sistah!
And I'm just the opposite. I'm a rule follower. Sometimes that takes the spontaneity out of life, though. Soem "rules" are merely guidelines, and are there to be broken. ;o) And we all know which rules those are.
LOL. Good one. About the faith thing...yesterday I woke up with such peace, and today I've been out of bed for 17 minutes and I have already worked myself up into a fine frenzy and calmed down. Apparently I don't even have faith as big as a mustard seed!
Great post, Denise! I'm learning more about that faith thing every day while I'm being forced to stay at home and still not able to hold my grandson!! :-(
Yep, you got it right. :o)
I'm a rule follower, but knowing me, I wouldn't have even noticed the sign. Today I was driving my brother around, and when I was making this one turn that I've made thousands of times before, I ran over the curb. Thank goodness I have an Explorer.
Its kind of like that in my walk with the Lord, now that I think about it. So often, even though I know what I should do, I look up and there I've gone and done something stupid - hit my spiritual curb. Of course, in hindsight, I see what should have been done, but when I'm actually going, I do tend to get distracted.
A thought-provoking post.
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