Sometimes we have bad days, bad weeks, bad months, and even bad years.
I recently had two bad days… but what made them bad?
I just moved back to San Antonio. There was much excitement and anticipation for the job I was going to start the next Monday… but before I started the job I had a week to rest and relax.
The summer was busy with youth ministry stuff, but on top of that I had to deal with the heartache and the emotional rollercoaster of leaving a ministry to go to a new one.
I wanted a week just to refuel…
So I said my goodbyes, packed up my house, drove cross country and arrived in San Antonio ready to take it easy for a few days before hitting the ground running.
Well, my second day back my truck got broken into. They stole my messenger bag with my laptop, bible, and journal, they stole my GPS, and they stole my ipod. With the stolen goods and the damage done to my truck I was out over two thousand bucks.
Not a good day.
Then the next day I needed to get a new drivers license and new license plates… simple enough, right?
I started off the morning by googling “dmv,” I couldn’t find a number that didn’t bring me to an automated system… I just wanted to talk to someone who was real. I pushed a series of “1s,” “2s,” and “3s” to get to the information that I thought I needed, but never really had confidence that I got what I needed from the computer lady’s voice.
My gut feeling was right.
I showed up to the DMV, waited in a long line, only to find out that I needed to have my truck registered before I could get my license.
Then I spent some more time driving around trying to find the Tax Collector’s Office to get my truck registered. I waited in another long line (but not as bad as the DMV) only to find out that I needed to have my truck inspected before I could have it registered.
Once I got my truck inspected I went back to the Tax Collector’s Office and got my truck registered. Then I made it back to the DMV… waited in line again only to find out that my old driver’s license, social security card, proof of insurance, and registration wasn’t enough… I needed a birth certificate or passport as well.
So I went to get my passport, drove back to the DMV, went to the front of the first line, got a number, only to wait in a seat for another hour before being called to the nice lady that would eventually take my picture… so I thought.
I got to the lady that would take my new picture and issue my Texas Driver’s License… I gave her all the documents, ready to step back to the black line and have my picture snapped… but then she asked me to stick my head up to this vision tester thing and read line 5. I couldn’t do it! I could read line 4, but not line 5, and therefore she couldn’t legally give me my license. Turns out I needed to go get glasses.
Another long and frustrating day.
Why were these two days bad… well I had a lot of valuable stuff stolen and I had to deal with the DMV and Tax Collector’s Office in the same day.
What do we do with bad days?
We can beat our steering wheels and yell at the top of our lungs with our windows up (cough cough)… we can sing hakuna matata… we can calmly say “serenity now,” or we can scream “SERENITY NOW!!!”
I’m not going to hide behind a blog on this one… I’m pretty sure I almost lost my voice yelling in my truck like an idiot. Maybe I have anger issues? Or maybe I just needed to go through a process.
Some time has passed and I can tell the story of the two bad days with laughter. Does it still stink that I lost a lot of money? Yes. Does it still stink that I lost a lot of important files on my old computer? Yes. Does it still stink that I lost A LOT of music on my ipod that I LEGALLY bought?! Yes. Does it stink that I have to be inconvienced to go get my truck fixed where the guys broke into my truck? Yes.
All of that stuff still stinks, and it still kicks up some ill emotions inside me if I let it, but I ultimately know that all of my stuff is temporary… one day moth and rust will destroy all of my things… whether they’ve been stolen or not.
What do we do with bad days? We have to move on.
I think it was Pat Green who said, "Wouldn't life be awfully boring if the good times were all that we had?"
I’m moving on.
Here's the most important thing to take from this blog post... maybe I should have put it first?
Through this I came to realize something... maybe this was the reality check I needed to make me realize that I need to consentrate more on the eternal things in life.
I hope and pray that my heart hurts more for the potential loss of eternal things, like souls, than it hurts for the loss of temporary things like computers and ipods.
Things can only go up from here!
