I just got fined $280 for parking at a tow away zone. Given the circumstances, I felt it was really unfair and I am doing what I can to contest that.
I am reminded of something challenging I read recently. And now I am being challenged to live it out.
Even though this is such a huge fine, "This is (still) the day that the Lord has made; let us (still) rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118:24 (I added the words in the bracket)
C. S. Lewis once said:
“The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one’s ‘own,’ or ‘real’ life. The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one’s real life—the life God is sending one day by day; what one calls one’s ‘real life’ is a phantom of one’s own imagination. This at least is what I see at moments of insight: but it’s hard to remember it all the time.”
All these unpleasant things in my day are "sovereign deliveries", part of God's perfect plan for my day. Unpleasant as they are, He can still work it out for good.
"Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" Philippians 4:4
On another note, this got me thinking. I feel like someone's cheated me out of $280 and am feeling really angry and frustrated about it. But there are other people "less fortunate than I, let's face it, who isn't less fortunate than I?" (as Glinda from Wicked puts it) who were cheated of their homes, resources and livelihoods by men motivated by greed (referring specifically to those from home).
Imagine how they would feel. Imagine how much harder it would be for them.
Here I am doing all I can to get my $280 back because I felt it was unjust, but what am I doing about all these other people who have been exploited far more than I?
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