Random Acts of Violence

OK…I need to blog about this while it’s fresh because if I wait and try to digest tonight’s events, I probably won’t ever write about it.

As is the custom after our Monday Samson Society meeting, I was on my way to meet my buddies at the Mellow Mushroom.  I was looking forward to a slice or two and some fellowship after our evening discussion on powerlessness of all things.  It was raining (as it has for 4 days straight) and I wasn’t paying much attention as I got out of my car but as I was walking down a side street toward the restaurant, two assholes tried to rob me at gunpoint.

Just moments before, I had passed them on the sidewalk so I only got a glancing look as I hurried toward Elm St, trying to keep as dry as possible but I heard one of them running toward me and as I looked back, I saw a gun in his right hand as he yelled “Give me all your money”. 

Instinctively, I bolted…trying to make it around the corner of the building.  In that instant, I thought about how I could easily get shot in the back so I did my best impersonation of a baseball player sliding into second base and “hit the dirt” as I slid around the corner. 

I grabbed for my phone as I neared the entrance to the restaurant as my friend would have just about been getting out of his car on the same dark street.  Breathless, I told him what had happened and that he should stay put when he told me that he had just seen the two hoodlums run past his van.   Of course, I hung up with him and did the requisite thing, calling the police but the punks were long gone by the time they arrived.

As I write this, I am both thankful and pissed off (not an uncommon mix of emotions in me I might add).  I am thankful that God protected me and angry at the ridiculousness of the situation.  I had a $1.27 and a Starbucks card on me at the time which isnt the issue.  The issue is the brazen entitlement attitude by these thugs (an issue for which I already have a real thorn in my side).

Why these two jerks think they are entitled to my wallet is beyond me.  Get a fucking  job and work like the rest of society…make a contribution to what ails our city instead of contributing to its mess!  So what…I lose a wallet and maybe a few teeth but again, that isn’t what angers me.  I am sick to death of our society’s air of entitlement.

AIG gets bailed out and then spends $165Million on executive bonuses…advertising that tells us how much we deserve the new car or the exotic vacation…a US economy in recession due largely to corporate greed and homeowners who bought a house they knew they couldn’t afford.  It’s a cancer that has spread into all areas of our society!

So, I’ll take a look at the log in my own eye.  How often do I expect that God owes me a blessing for my good behavior?  C’mon…”Lord, I’m serving men and trying to grow in my faith…couldnt you just bless my business since I’m such a great guy?”  Who hasnt thrown one up to heaven like that in the past year?  We often approach God with an attitude of entitlement.

God owes us JACK!  

He ransomed us from the gates of hell and gave us a heavenly advance in the form of  His Spirit.  He loves us to a depth that we’ll never understand this side of heaven and yet…we want more!  We wander…we prostitute ourselves at the alter of consumerism, thinking that “we’ve worked hard so we deserve the new flatscreen”.  None of this crap provides any lasting relief to the ache in our hearts that only He can satisfy.

Be reminded that you are entitled to absolutely nothing….regardless of what Obama and his $800 billion has to say about it.  As dead men (and women), it is no longer us who live…it is Christ who lives in us.  We are entitled only to the next breath and the next heartbeat that He gives to us…nothing more.

Ok…time to get off my soapbox and get some sleep.  I am certainly entitled to a good nights sleep after the evening I had, right?