This whole debacle upset me. I was absolutely livid that someone would yell at me that he couldn't get to his burger on time. It's not like he was on his way to the hospital. He was turning into Apache burger....they're not even that good. Did he have to pee? Was it some emergency? If it was, he still had time to stop beside me and yell.
Regardless, yesterday I shared a video about people fighting over a parking spot at Costco. Literally. Fighting. Over a parking spot. I've been there. That's my home Costco. There's a lot of parking. It's a plaza. You can park at Walmart. The fact that they took the time to yell, then proceed to punch each other over a parking spot. It's a parking spot. The time you spent fighting each other, could have been spent trying to find another parking spot - for pete's sake, the guy filming the video said that he was trying to leave but he couldn't because their car was blocking him. If they just waited two minutes, one of them could have had his spot.
I think that's the key word though. Wait. If the guy who yelled at me WAITED until the light turned green, then he wouldn't have been so angry, if the people at Costco WAITED until the next parking spot became available, then there would have been less angry people, and less crying children.
Why are we all in such a rush? None of these situations were emergencies.
On my way home today I was so angry, but then I thought, what is there to be angry about? I'm not going to waste my drive home on such a beautiful day, dwelling on something that I couldn't help make better. Thinking more about the situation would have made me more upset. And the guy eating his Apache burger probably is still ranting about how I wouldn't move up. I'm going to take the higher road, and look around me, and feel blessed.
I wish people would do that more often. In any event of stress, we should just stop and think about the blessings that you have. The blessings that God has given you.
I haven't talked about this much, but on my trip to the Philippines and India, aside from learning a lot about work, I learned a lot more about myself, and just how blessed I am to even be living in Canada.
People probably say that a lot after visiting a 3rd world country. I hated it there. I hated it in India, I thought everything was dirty and gross. All I could hear and see around me was poverty and sadness, and just.......poor people. I wanted to go home to my house, with my family, and my bed, and my comfort.
On my first day back in Canada, I realized why I hated India so much. I hated it because it showed how little I'm doing in my own life. It revealed to me how ungrateful I am and how I don't take the time to be......thankful. Every day I would complain that I'm tired, that my car feels like it's breaking, or that I don't want to eat chicken again, for the 15th day in a row. Or I complain that the house is so messy and that I'm tired.
One day, on one of our hour long drives in India, I noticed something. Beside the people bathing on the streets, and people digging through dirt looking for food, and a couple of stray dogs running around, beside the children selling randomness to cars in traffic, and beside the shanty houses, and dirt houses and cloth houses. Beside all that crap of garbage was one white wall, written in red spray paint "Jesus loves you." That's all it said. And you know what? Jesus does love them. Jesus loves you, and he loves me.
It's so simple. Jesus loves us. He loves us all. Whether we have money, or if we're poor, or if we're sad or angry. Jesus loves us for who we are. We're all in the same boat. He doesn't love one of us more than the other. He just loves us. Isn't that all we need?
Can we all just stop? JUST STOP! Take a minute. Look around you! Be grateful! Stop being so selfish. Stop thinking about YOURSELF. JUST STOP! Please! Be happy. Be happy that you're alive. Be happy that you have food on the table, or internet every day. Just be happy that Jesus Loves You! Not everyone knows that, and maybe that's why they're so angry......and impatient............and cranky. It's okay. It's okay to be angry, or annoyed, or cranky, or yell. That's fine. Just don't dwell on it. Don't let the anger sit there. Remember, Jesus Loves You. That's all you need.
