Possibilities

I can't believe what I did the other night, I really can't.  I was coming home from the Art Center in a torrential downpour, driving 35 mph on a 55 mph highway.  I couldn't see in front of me, it was raining so hard.  And when it rains here in Florida, there is absolutely no where for it to go, because this state is already on sea level, so the streets flood really quickly.  On the side streets, I tried driving in the center of the road to avoid the swelling gutters.  I got to the house and I sat in the car for a minute, but then my mom opened the garage door for me to run in there from the car.  I grabbed my purse and made a mad dash for the garage, getting soaking wet in the meantime.  I can't run, and I didn't want to slip and fall, so I kind of just waddled quickly, but it was coming down so heavy that getting soaked was unavoidable.

I talked to my mom for a bit, then I went into my room to dry off.  About 45 minutes later, we ate dinner and after I cleaned up, I went into my room and got on the computer and watched some TV.  My mom yelled from the kitchen about 8:00 that my car lights were on and I thought, "Oh shoot, I somehow left the lights on and my battery will be dead."  I looked for my car keys and they weren't on the counter, and then I said, "OH NO" out loud, waddled out the door to my car and found it was still running.  It had run for over 3 hours, as I forgot to turn it off.  Half of the gas was gone because the air conditioner was still on.  I couldn't believe I did that - I've never done that before, but because of the rain, I was more worried about getting WET than turning my car off.  I felt like a real idiot and I'm mad at myself because now I have to fill the gas tank again.  A perfect example of being distracted by the trivial, thereby ignoring the important stuff.  Unfortunately, that happens a lot in life....

The thing about Florida, is that in the summer, it rains every single day.  Every late afternoon, thunder rolls across the dark sky and sometimes lightening strikes and then a torrential downpour comes and goes, usually quite quickly. After the rain, the sun comes back out and acts like it never rained, and the streets dry fast under this oppressive heat.  I mean, you've never felt anything like it.  If the air conditioning in my car goes out, I will be doomed.  In fact, I won't drive because it's so hot and humid, that I can hardly breathe.  I feel terrible for people who don't have air conditioning in their cars or in their houses.  I have no idea how they live like that.  And as far as homeless people go, I can't even imagine their lives.  It bothers me so much to think that they don't even have a fan or protection from the bugs and other nasty creatures crawling around.  I just can't handle the fact that they have no where to go for shelter from the elements, storms and mosquitos as big as a Volkswagen.

I remember when I worked in downtown Madison, for a judge at the time, and there was a small, older lady who would be huddled up in a corner of the lower level.  She was homeless and I don't know where she went when they closed the courthouse up, but she was there every day when I went to the cafeteria to get some coffee.  She had garbage bags filled with all of her belongings and she sat, hunched up in the corner of the wall, while hundreds of people passed her every day.  I always felt so bad for her and I wanted to help her, but she wouldn't talk to anyone or respond if you did talk to her.  I don't know if she was mentally ill or just tired of living in a society where she was shunned and avoided.  It's easier to look away and avoid people like that, and I'm sure she was used to being rejected.

But she was someone's mother, or sister or daughter.  She was one or all of those things.  But where were her relatives?  And did they care, or was she all alone in the world?  I didn't know the answers to those questions, but do I know this much:  that Jesus came for her as much as He came for me, or the wealthy aristocrats living in mansions.  He is no respecter of persons, so why are we?

We are so ignorant over that which we are not familiar with.  We are prejudice against those who are not like us.  We fear those things that could possibly happen to us too, therefore we limit ourselves from all kinds of possibilities.  Help me Lord, to be the woman who You want me to be - not a by-product of our twisted and perverted society.