A Tale of Two Perspectives
I like watching reruns of a tv show titled Parking Wars. I have mentioned this before. This reality show follows parking enforcement related personnel and the public to which they interact. Here’s how it relates to today’s perspective.
A wind gust came through this last winter and our blow-up snow man took off. When day broke, I saw him in a non-adjacent neighbors front yard so I went to retrieve him (the temperature had dropped to 16 degrees so I wasn’t enthusiastically retrieving). When I got back, my rerun was going. The segment was highlighting a New Jersey towing company that went to a contracted private parking lot to tow any vehicle that wasn’t properly displaying the required parking permit. The owner drove one tow truck and his 16-year-old prodigy son drove a second tow truck. They quickly found two vehicles to tow. The owner of the one that the prodigy son hooked up came running out to stop them from towing his vehicle. He was affixing the parking permit from his mirror (instead of the rule required rear window) and it wasn’t seen. The towing truck owner decided to let the guy off (legitimately, he could have towed the vehicle because the permit wasn’t in the required place) with a warning. When they got back to the lot, the Dad asked his prodigy son if he understood why he decided to let the guy off. In other words, he was teaching compassion to his son.
The owner’s truck towed the second vehicle (a minivan), back to the lot. A little later, the irate owner of that vehicle came to get it. She argued that she had been parking there for over 6 months and had never been towed before. When her argument didn’t get any traction, she complained that it was suspicious that other vehicles didn’t get towed (implying racism, I’d guess). That argument didn’t get her anywhere so she paid her fine. As the owner was assisting her by getting her minivan, she continued her argument that it wasn’t fair that she got towed. She did not learn her lesson and resorted to justifying her incorrect behavior.
“Teach me, and I will be silent; make me understand how I have gone astray. How forceful are upright words! But what does reproof from you reprove? Do you think that you can reprove words, when the speech of a despairing man is wind? You would even cast lots over the fatherless, and bargain over your friend. “But now, be pleased to look at me, for I will not lie to your face. Please turn; let no injustice be done. Turn now; my vindication is at stake. Is there any injustice on my tongue? Cannot my palate discern the cause of calamity?” - Job 6:24-30 ESV
The first vehicle acknowledged that he wasn’t following exactly the rules and explained that he had previous parking passes stolen and had resorted to hanging it and moving it as needed. The towing owner showed mercy and let him off with a warning. But more important, he took the time to explain the concept of his rationale for giving the guy a break to his enthusiastic son. Unfortunately, we tend to react like the second person with rationalization of our sins rather than accepting them and asking for forgiveness. A clear lesson to learn.
“Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” - Ephesians 4:25-32
