Black and White

I often long for the days when the good guys wore white and the bad wore black.  An incident a few months back reminded me of why.  A girlfriend and I had just pulled through a drive-thru when a man walked up from behind my car to ask for directions.  It wasn't until he leaned toward my open window that I began to panic.  My doors were unlocked and we were blocked in from a quick getaway.  If the man really was lost I wanted to help, but I couldn't tell if he was a good guy or a bad one.  Where was that white hat?  I didn't find one, but all ended well—the man got the help he needed and we were safe.  Jesus has a better identification program than white or black hats.
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A Birds Eye View

Dancing around from side to side, taking shortcuts underneath the plants to the next row, the bird constantly pecked into the earth, ferreting around for the first meal of the day. Occasionally the bird would stop and “chew” and swallow some undetermined shard but then, all of a sudden, the uncompromising peck into the fertile ground brought forth a prize-sized earthworm worthy of fastidious consumption! Little by little the earthworm disappeared into the contented stomach of my feathered garden guest!

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Accidental Love

Tomorrow I would turn sixteen. Today, I was running errands with my Mom in her car. I was driving through an intersection when another car slammed into us, pushing us into a telephone pole. My head hit the rearview mirror and split the bridge of my nose wide open. The car was totaled. After thirteen stitches and a citation for running a yellow light, which to this day I don't remember seeing, I found myself sitting at home; waiting for my Dad.

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A Degree Worth Receiving

A few years ago my family had a big discussion about the importance of college degrees versus life experience.  A friend of ours had lost his job and because he didn't have a college degree, was being passed up for a lot of jobs he was more than qualified for.  I argued that even though I have a college degree I felt that this man's experience should put him on an even plane with me, and in some instances beyond me.  It was interesting.  Those in the discussion who had the college degrees felt as I did, but those who didn't have degrees felt that the degree should give me a "leg-up.”  I thought about that discussion for some time before I realized where the disparity came from.  Those of us who have learned a lot have learned that the more we learn the more we know what we don't know.  In other words, our knowledge shows us how much we have yet to learn.

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Holding on to the Unchangeable

I don’t like change, and I don’t like surprises.  I want everything done decently and in order.  Predictability is just below godliness on my list.  The problem is, I live in a very unpredictable world—, and so do you.  From the time I was a young girl, however, I knew things weren’t as they should be.  Inequity surrounded me, but I felt impotent to do anything about it.  As a result, when I hit my teens, I became a champion of causes, defending the underdog at every opportunity and jumping on every soapbox that demanded justice for someone.  None of it did much good, though.  You see, I recognized the problem but I didn’t know the Problem-Solver.  I saw the injustice but had no relationship with the righteous Judge.  I longed for people to be treated fairly and equally but erroneously believed that unfair and unequal human beings could dispense such treatment.

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