The No Kool Aid Zone

Lessons from a Parking Garage

Posted by Byron July 21, 2006 at 2:41 pm
Filed Under Life as a Jesus-follower | Leave a Comment |

I was irritated. Royally, I mean. The nerve. I drive all the way to Pittsburgh, park in the hospital parking garage, and get this, when I pay for my parking, there is no way to get a receipt. I mean, can you believe that?

And then, I drive to the other Pittsburgh hospital to make a visit, and, get this, the first two parking garages I come to are full. Can you believe that? The nerve of those people! Didn’t they know I was coming? I had to actually drive around for nearly five full minutes until I found a place to park.

Needless to say, by the time I got out of my car at the second hospital, I was just fuming with the frustration, the indignity, of being treated in this way. I mean, wouldn’t any regular, sane person be?

Aaaaahhh…well…then I stopped for a moment and thought. I had my health, and wasn’t either of the kids I was going to see who were laid up with broken bones. No, I felt just peachy-fine myself. And I had a car that runs well, one that transported me 60 miles in an hour to make these visits—whereas there are people in the world who will live their entire lives and not go more than 60 miles from the place they were born. And millions upon multiplied millions of others who will never own a car. And even in our country, what percentage of folks who own cars own two as relatively nice as I do, bought and paid for? And if I’d been born a century back, I’d not have had the luxury of driving an hour and going nearly this far. And the one guy who came into the hospital with life-threatening injuries probably wouldn’t have lived to see his 18th birthday. And as a pastor, I’d be dealing with death regularly, and my own life expectancy would be such that I might not even be here.

And when I left the hospital, I drove past a hundred eating establishments where I could easily afford to sit down to a sumptuous meal, whereas 35,000 children will die today because of some malnutrition-related cause. And I have a loving wife in a good, intact marriage, with 3 healthy kids who love me and (usually) mind, and a home that is well-appointed and pretty large (anybody want to buy it, by the way?), and I’ve got two refrigerators and a freezer at home, not to mention a pantry full of food, and I get paid a decent wage, which will enable me to have some money socked away so that when I retire, I can probably play a lot of golf, and I’m a free American, which means that, unlike most parts of the world, I can say what I think of our national leaders, go anywhere within our borders without telling anyone I’m going, live free of the fear that bombs are going to drop on my head or that some awful illness is going to rampage through our nation and leave millions dead (bird flu concerns notwithstanding).

And so when I get all hot and bothered because I didn’t get a receipt to turn in and get reimbursed for, you know what I am? I am an ungrateful, lost-all-perspective, don’t-know-how-good-I’ve-got-it bum. And boy, do I need the grace of Jesus.

“In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” Now, to get that through my hard head…