| | My purse was stolen yesterday. After a brief tug-of-war the straps finally broke and the thief ran off with my purse. I yelled out to him to at least give me back my car keys. Surprisingly, he paused for a moment to look into the jumble of my purse, realized it would take much too long to find them and sped away. It sounds scary, but strangely it wasn't, very frustrating, yes.
I was in the Fashion District (a very loose term) in downtown L.A.. It consists of a multitude of little shops packed closely together that sell cheap unique, trendy clothing, fabrics and shoes. I go looking for that thing so unique nobody wants so it ends up in a trashy bin. Not having much money forced me to learn to be creative with other people's discards.
In the shock of the theft what amazed me is that all I could think of is how good God is to me, I felt a warm comfort that I was not alone. I saw the kindness of usually suspicious Jewish, Iranian, Asian, and Hispanic shop owners who graciously allowed me to make toll calls on their telephones and had kind words to say. After Octavio met me with an extra set of car keys, we had a very pleasant conversation with the usually hardened LAPD police officers who took the police report. They said it was a relief for them to get away from South-Central for a while and be around nice people. Of course Octavio brought up that he had been a chaplain for the Sheriffs at one time. By the time they left one of them joked that it was too bad that my tragedy made them so happy for a brief time.
Later, we went to dinner and to buy some replacements for some of the items in my purse. Then we went to a get-together our daughter was having at her house for some of her friends (We were invited!). Everyone was very entertained by my story. I was able to repeat that all the guy took was just stuff-our lives are more than stuff. Only God can do that! He puts everything into perspective. He makes good things come out of bad.
I was again reminded we live in a broken world, (as Lewis puts it, “We live in enemy occupied territory”). It's all part of the war I'm engaged in. It is what I'm here for; to make it a better place and to bring those who have been taken hostage in.
This is only temporary.
Matthew 6:19,20 John 16:33 |
| | Posted 9/25/2005 8:41 PM - 14 Views - 8 eProps - 11 comments
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