Michael Jackson once wrote a song called, Smooth Criminal. I wonder what the opposite of a smooth criminal is because I was hit by one of those yesterday.
As I walked into the arid brilliance of the early spring mid-afternoon, a thousand tiny glints of sunlight flashed back at me from the ground next to my truck. Broken glass. This had happened to me before. I knew the drill - it would be a pain in the butt. As I came closer to my truck, I noticed that the metal on my car door was gouged and bent next to the broken passenger side window. "Rookies. Punk Rookies!" I am not a criminal but any criminal worth his salt, knows that you break car windows with ceramics - most commonly part of an old spark plug. the reason for this is that it makes less sound - a slight pop. These fools had used a piece of metal and when that didn't work, they pried the edge of the glass until the metal bent and broke the window. This little difference meant that the damage is 1800 dollars instead of 200 dollars. The worst part was that once they entered the vehicle, they searched it a got away with nothing. Nada. Zilch. My co-worker, who used to be a Sheriff's deputy thinks they wanted my GPS unit which I had a mount for on the dashboard. My wife had it in her car that day.
But what really sucks is how one little sinful act is taking up so much of my life. So I have begun the annoying process of trying to get my car fixed. I had to call the police, file a report, call the insurance, take the car to a shop for an estimate, call the insurance guys back, call the glass guys, take a picture of broken window, have them say they can't just replace the glass and then thank them for taking the time to do it. Then I have to pay he 500 dollar deductible, talk to my wife about why we need to change our budget that month and why, through no fault of mine, that our date night has gone from Magianos and the Imax to Little Cesars and the Red Box. Our kitchen cabinets will need to wait another month and we can't drive my car without the heater on full blast at the moment. I will need to confirm with the auto shop, find a ride to work for next week. Wait for them to see if they have the right parts. Bum rides and take the bus to all of my nighttime stuff. And then finally after two weeks of straight annoying, I get my car back in almost the same shape as it started. I almost wish the dude would have taken my hundred dollar GPS unit. I almost hope he had got some crack and a pipe stem to smoke it in exchange for it. At least then someone would have benefitted from this. But as it stands, my car got beat up for nothing and I have to deal with it. What a bummer.
I guess all sin is like this. It starts with being consumed with our own desires. And then we haphazardly, and sometimes sloppily violate someone. We don't think about what it will do to them. We don't think that our five minutes of selfishness might cause 2 weeks of strife to someone else. We just think about getting our high - whatever our own personal crack high might be. Admiration, sex, job security, gossip, appearing clever, etc. And we wreck others as we search for a cheap high. I guess what I am saying is that we do more damage to others than we realize. I have done more damage to others than I realize.
I want to apologize to anyone out there whom I have violated with words or actions. I am sorry for the pain I have caused you. I am sorry that my momentary selfishness caused lasting harm to you. And I hope that I can be forgiven and I hope that I can make restitution in any way possible.
As I walked into the arid brilliance of the early spring mid-afternoon, a thousand tiny glints of sunlight flashed back at me from the ground next to my truck. Broken glass. This had happened to me before. I knew the drill - it would be a pain in the butt. As I came closer to my truck, I noticed that the metal on my car door was gouged and bent next to the broken passenger side window. "Rookies. Punk Rookies!" I am not a criminal but any criminal worth his salt, knows that you break car windows with ceramics - most commonly part of an old spark plug. the reason for this is that it makes less sound - a slight pop. These fools had used a piece of metal and when that didn't work, they pried the edge of the glass until the metal bent and broke the window. This little difference meant that the damage is 1800 dollars instead of 200 dollars. The worst part was that once they entered the vehicle, they searched it a got away with nothing. Nada. Zilch. My co-worker, who used to be a Sheriff's deputy thinks they wanted my GPS unit which I had a mount for on the dashboard. My wife had it in her car that day.
But what really sucks is how one little sinful act is taking up so much of my life. So I have begun the annoying process of trying to get my car fixed. I had to call the police, file a report, call the insurance, take the car to a shop for an estimate, call the insurance guys back, call the glass guys, take a picture of broken window, have them say they can't just replace the glass and then thank them for taking the time to do it. Then I have to pay he 500 dollar deductible, talk to my wife about why we need to change our budget that month and why, through no fault of mine, that our date night has gone from Magianos and the Imax to Little Cesars and the Red Box. Our kitchen cabinets will need to wait another month and we can't drive my car without the heater on full blast at the moment. I will need to confirm with the auto shop, find a ride to work for next week. Wait for them to see if they have the right parts. Bum rides and take the bus to all of my nighttime stuff. And then finally after two weeks of straight annoying, I get my car back in almost the same shape as it started. I almost wish the dude would have taken my hundred dollar GPS unit. I almost hope he had got some crack and a pipe stem to smoke it in exchange for it. At least then someone would have benefitted from this. But as it stands, my car got beat up for nothing and I have to deal with it. What a bummer.
I guess all sin is like this. It starts with being consumed with our own desires. And then we haphazardly, and sometimes sloppily violate someone. We don't think about what it will do to them. We don't think that our five minutes of selfishness might cause 2 weeks of strife to someone else. We just think about getting our high - whatever our own personal crack high might be. Admiration, sex, job security, gossip, appearing clever, etc. And we wreck others as we search for a cheap high. I guess what I am saying is that we do more damage to others than we realize. I have done more damage to others than I realize.
I want to apologize to anyone out there whom I have violated with words or actions. I am sorry for the pain I have caused you. I am sorry that my momentary selfishness caused lasting harm to you. And I hope that I can be forgiven and I hope that I can make restitution in any way possible.
I am constantly apologizing for cleverness.
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