By Jim D.
Dan pulled out ahead of me from the Budget parking lot in the pickup truck. I pulled up to the Budget attendant in our big van, eager to catch up with Dan. The young guy scanned the vehicle barcode then looked at me awkwardly for a moment, then said with a big smile on his face, “wouldn’t it be funny if I made you wait here a few minutes, then you can tell your buddy up there that you got held up because you were strip searched?”
I looked him squarely in the eyes, and said, “I’ve been here for almost two hours. That would not be funny.” He promptly opened the gate and said “thank you sir, have a good day” and I was on my way. Ecclesiastes 7: 8-9 writes:
The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride. Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools.
Through our various times of being forced to stop and wait on Saturday, I learned a valuable lesson in patience. I let my impatience get the better of me. I’m generally not an impatient person, but when I know people are depending and waiting on me, I don’t like to disappoint them. I was not thinking about the “end of the matter”, but too worried about the “now”. Fortunately I didn’t get angry about it, but this poor young guy at the Budget parking lot gate was just trying to make a joke and lighten my day.
The team was waiting back at the Denver airport terminal with the luggage waiting to be picked up. It was past lunchtime in Colorado time, and our bodies being two hours ahead of EST, we were all getting hungry. As one of the team leaders, I desired for everything to go smoothly. But the Lord continues to teach me that you just have to stop sometimes, take a breath, and give everything over to Him.
We need to do this on a daily basis, and often on a moment-by-moment basis. Because the moment that we turn to rely on our own wisdom, the devil starts to get his foothold. But when we turn to God and let him have the control, we will gain in the fruit of the spirit… in this case, patience.
So no, I certainly was not strip searched at Budget. But God did use the many times of waiting on Him yesterday to be stripped of my pride and impatience. May we all be open to how God uses our daily experiences to shape us more and more into the image of His son, Jesus Christ.
The team was waiting back at the Denver airport terminal with the luggage waiting to be picked up. It was past lunchtime in Colorado time, and our bodies being two hours ahead of EST, we were all getting hungry. As one of the team leaders, I desired for everything to go smoothly. But the Lord continues to teach me that you just have to stop sometimes, take a breath, and give everything over to Him.
We need to do this on a daily basis, and often on a moment-by-moment basis. Because the moment that we turn to rely on our own wisdom, the devil starts to get his foothold. But when we turn to God and let him have the control, we will gain in the fruit of the spirit… in this case, patience.
So no, I certainly was not strip searched at Budget. But God did use the many times of waiting on Him yesterday to be stripped of my pride and impatience. May we all be open to how God uses our daily experiences to shape us more and more into the image of His son, Jesus Christ.