Text Messaging Revelations

As you might have noticed, yesterday was an interestingly bad day for me. Starting the day off by realizing that you've been burglarized automatically puts a gloom on the day. I was late for work because I was on the phone all morning talking to credit card companies. I couldn't file a police report because there was no "break in" (opening an unlocked car door doesn't take a criminal master mind), and I couldn't file for insurance because the amount that was stolen didn't meet any sort of deductible. Plain and simple, I donated my camera, wallet, and iPod to the dishonest. I had to work long to make up for being late. I was going to have to use my tithe for any spending money because it was the only cash available. On top of everything, I would have to take a half day vacation because I had to get a new drivers license, and the average wait time at any Oklahoma DPS is approximately 2-3 hours.

During the day, I received an anonymous (seriously, no clue who it was) text message that said God is going to make 2 things clear to you tonight. I realized that it was just a mass text because it said something else like send this to 10 people or it won't come true. As if God is looking down on us going "OK lets see, you didn't forward my text message so no revelations for you tonight. Maybe next time you will obey your text messages!" I deleted the text almost immediately.

When I finally got off work, I went home and got in bed. I didn't want to put myself in any situation that could make the day get worse. I just wanted to hide under the covers and listen to Harry Potter (that's right, I'm still on my books on CD kick). As I laid in bed listening to the melodic voice of Jim Dale attempting to soothe my wounds, I started boiling over my misfortune. At the peak of my anger, my phone started ringing; it was the answering service for NOV. This was weird because I'm not on call so there is no reason they should be calling me.

Turns out, a jogger that lives directly across the street from me had found the contents of my wallet on the ground in our neighborhood and called one of my business cards to get a hold of me. Just when I lost all hope in humanity, I get slapped in the face by the hand of kindness. All of the contents of my wallet were returned; including: credit cards, driver license, and most importantly, my library card. This got me thinking about my anonymous text message. Do you necessarily have to forward a text message to receive an answer from God or do you just have to seek the answer?

So, I started thinking. Maybe, the thief was just desperate. Maybe, he needed those things more than I did. Maybe, taking my belongings helped support him in some way. Maybe, he had some debt that he needed to pay off or some starving family to support, and his back was so far against the wall that he was forced to steal to make ends meet. The physical items that were stolen can be replaced. I realized that I'm not really bitter about losing those items. Actually, the wallet and iPod were given to me by an ex-girlfriend and probably would have been surrendered willingly. The camera would have been a little harder to give up; more specifically, my memory card. I wish that I could have put the photos on my computer before losing it. Luckily, my mother had copied a few of them to her computer before I left, so not all was lost. Revelation number 1.

Then, I started thinking about what I was planning on doing for money. I was going to take my tithe and spend it for my personal needs. The money that is set aside for God as an offering to his glory was going to be spent because of my irrationally selfish pity. It's amazing how pathetic we can be when we think we're enduring times of despair. I thought back to the bible story of Nadab and Abihu; the two sons of Aaron that God engulfed in flames for burning the wrong type of fire offering. Their error: not following God's orders by using different ingredients for their offering. My error: planning to withhold my offering all together and spend it on myself. You tell me who deserved to be engulfed in flames. Kind of crazy to think of how important tithing can be, eh? Revelation number 2.

I'm an idiot. This was more rambling than anything, but I hope you can find something useful in my revelations. Wow, this was super long! I'm sorry.