"stuff"

Every Wednesday I wake very early and go to the local Jim’s Restaurant to have breakfast with my best friend, Steve. We’ve known each other for 20 years and have been through thick and thin together. He’s a powerful Christian now and an inspiration to me.

This morning we’re eating and discussing various topics such as the Spurs, our jobs, and life in general when suddenly my wife calls to tell me we’ve been robbed. Yes, robbed.

Apparently the garage door was left open all night and someone came in and helped themselves to my tools.

Of course I was stunned. We live in a nice neighborhood. This kind of stuff isn’t supposed to happen in nice neighborhoods, right?

It never ceases to amaze me how bad people can be. What kind of person cruises a neighborhood looking for opportunities like this, and then have the guts to enter someone’s home and take their stuff?

I was mad at first. I don’t understand why these people can’t just get a job and buy the stuff themselves!?

I went home and inventoried everything. They took the top half of a large tool chest that housed screw drivers and other miscellaneous stuff. They also grabbed a very nice kit of Craftsman sockets and wrenches.

Surprisingly that seems to be all they got.There isn’t enough room in between the garage wall and my wife’s Vitara to take anything bigger. They also didn’t go through the cabinets and drawers. The nice police officer, M. Ramos, who came by earlier to take a statement said she’d seen the contents of an entire garage stolen before.

We were lucky. It could've been bad. Especially if you consider the fact that these people were in my garage and could have come into the house last night while we were sleeping. It could have been very bad.

I believe there are lessons to be learned in everything that happens in life. God teaches in a lot of ways, but he always teaches. One of the lessons today is that there is no such thing as a “no crime” neighborhood, only less crime. Also, close the stupid garage door!

The main lesson though is that the things we have here on Earth can go away as quickly as we buy them. As tangible as we feel our stuff is, it isn’t. What matters are the treasures we store in heaven, and even as I sat in the restaurant after hearing my home had been violated I stopped and prayed with Steve and asked God to forgive the thieves and work in their lives so they might find Him.

I hope they enjoy the tools.

“God, there are a lot people here that need you. People who take because they don’t know how to give, and because no one has ever done anything nice for them. Please work in their lives so they will have a chance to encounter you. Amen”.