The Lord takes away, but the Lord gives

Last night, I was given a lesson about perspective. I worked at Harkins Theatre. I was scheduled to be an usher (theater cleaner) from 4pm to 12:30am (which almost never means 12:30, especially on a Saturday night). Some time during my time as an usher, I bent down to pick something up, resulting in a nice new rip in my nice used pants. So, I was walking around with my broom and butler (dustpan thing) strategically placed in front of me, and I was told by a team leader that I would be spending the rest of the night at door. As an usher, I would have been moving around, cleaning theaters, and interacting with my co-workers. At door, I stood in one place, took tickets, and interacted with the general public. I don't like working door.

Anywho, my legs were hurting for standing in one place for so long. I didn't even sit down on my break because I biked over to Target to get an energy drink. I was super tired standing there. I was hoping that I would actually get off at 12:30, so I could catch the last bus home instead of biking. But on door, I had to stay until 20 minutes after the last movie started (the last movie started at 12:50). I clocked out at around 1:15, went to get my bike, and noticed that my back tire was flat. I walked to the "convenience" store in Tempe Marketplace, and put my 75 cents in to get air (which is just criminal) to fill up my tire. I tried to fill up the tire, but the nozzle thing to put air in kind of came off, so my tire was un-inflatable. I parked it outside of PetsMart and proceeded to walk home (which, according to Mapquest, was a 3.59 mile walk).

As I was walking, I could have grumbled and complained to God, asking why all this had to happen. But instead, I thanked God that I brought my knee brace, because that walk would have been hell without it. And I thanked God that I brought flip-flops to change into, which I never do. Without those, my feet would have died. And I thanked God that my legs weren't tired anymore from standing still for several hours.

I was reminded of Job. Not that my life is or ever has been as bad as Job's was, because it's no where near. But after Job lost all his family, livestock, house, money, he didn't respond by asking God what the big deal was. He didn't say, "The Lord has taken away." He remembered that what he had came from God and that God had the right to take it all away. And he said, "Blessed be the name of the Lord." If I had been focusing on the fact that I didn't have a bike or vehicle and had to walk so many miles, then I would have been angry, asking God why He couldn't deflate my tire after I got home. But instead of focusing on what God had taken away, I focused on what God had given me. And I wasn't even thinking about how much I didn't enjoy work. It is awesome to recognize just how enjoyable God can be if we recognize that He is our provider, and not some bully taking away our lunch money and giving us wedgies.

Milk? Meat? A diaper?

Warning: This post is kinda gross. You might not want to read this if you gross-out easily.

So, I've known for quite some time that ASU doesn't have the smartest students. My first hint: peer editing in English 102. One of my classmates, bless his heart, introduced his paper arguing for euthanasia with, "There are plenty of retarded of laws." It was then that I realized that my school will accept anyone with an income.

Another tell-tale sign that ASU kids aren't the brightest tools in the crayon box: toilets. I don't often go into the women's restrooms, so I can't say how they do, but I know that ASU men do not know how to properly use a toilet. When I lived on campus, a constant ritual would be to entire a bathroom stall with 2 paper towels, one wet, one dry. I had to do this to ensure that I wasn't sitting on the "present" left by the last person. I wanted to post a fake syllabus for the fake class, Not Pissing on the Toilet Seat 101. Week 1, lift seat. Week 2, aim. Week 3, final.

And it's not just in the dorms. I just moved from the Computing Commons to Hayden Library, because I had to use the restroom and, lo and behold,... well, I'm sure you can guess why.

I don't understand how people who graduated from high school don't know how to use the bathroom properly. If you've been out of diapers for at least 15 years, you'd think you'd learn some things.

I thought about drawing some spiritual analogy to Christians forgetting the basics of Christianity. And, while it seems I just did, I'm not going to go any farther than putting a link to the verse. Although, if the author of Hebrews had used a diaper-toilet illustration instead of a milk-meat illustration, I think it would have worked out fine.

High Steaks Sports

There's a commercial for some auto glass company that goes something like this:
Kids playing baseball
Kid hits baseball
Baseball hits windshield
Kids run
One kids comments, "Looks like mom is gonna get another box of Omaha steaks."
The commercial then shows the family getting a box of said steaks, because you get a free box every time you hire them to replace a windshield. This commercial implies that the kids have done this at least once before, and neither the kids nor the parents said, "Hm, you know how the windshield got broken last time? Maybe the kids should play somewhere else where there aren't any cars." Instead, the thought process is, in the voice of Homer Simpson, "Mm, steaks. *drool*"

I came home from school or work or something the other day, and I see cardboard in my window. As lovely as plain brown cardboard is, I didn't think that my roommates did it for decoration. Turns out the kids who are always playing soccer out in the too-small-and-too-close-to-apartments-to-logically-play-any-sports grassy area kicked their ball into our apartment via our window. Now, of course, when you break someone's window, your automatic response is to run away. The kids here, however, are smart and came back because we had their ball, and they wanted it back. So we know who did it (which wouldn't have been too hard to figure out because it's always the same kids playing anyway).

A couple weeks ago, those same kids with that same soccer ball hit our porch light, destroying our bulb, which we were too lazy or cheap to replace. There seems to be a trend here.

So, I go to a Bible discussion group yesterday, and on my way there, I see them playing again. I come home later and hear that they would have broken our porch light, had they not done it already. That's three times we've been the victim of kids playing soccer. Why are their parents not saying, "Hey, you know how you keep breaking other people's things when you play the same sport in the same place? Maybe you should go to the park right down the street. Or, you know, read a book or something that won't leave those fine gentlemen of The Underground walking on glass"? I think I know why: parents don't give a flying crap about what their kids do, as long as the kids aren't in their hair.

Now I'm not one to generalize. I believe that the only generalization that is true is that all generalizations are untrue. I know that there are good parents out there. And their kids aren't the ones getting attention because they're not the ones breaking windows. Why raise your kids when TV and the great outsides can, right? Why teach them not to destroy things, as long as they're not destroying your things? I just think too many people have too many kids and don't know how to raise them.

Either that, or they really like Omaha steaks.