Do not pass go, Do not collect $200

           

                 Everyone loves the game of monopoly.  It is a game full of challenge and based upon who has the most property and money, and that person ends up winning the game.  But, with a roll of the dice or if you end up getting a faulty chance card, you are on the fast track to jail, do not pass go and do not collect $200.  You get to sit out and watch others buy up the rest of the property and you might even lose out on being the victor.  You are Ms. Broke Bags sitting in jail watching others have fun with the money that should have been yours.

                This made me think.  Uh Oh.  There I go thinking again.  Haha, just kidding.  Seriously though, How often do we get caught up in worldly gains? The fast track of life.  We become absorbed in figuring out who is wearing what designer label, who is driving the most expensive car, who lives in the mansion on the corner lot?  We get caught up in stuff.

                When you aren't the one driving the fancy car or wearing the fancy clothes, you get to thinking about how much you feel you are missing.  It is a human reaction.  Envy.  It's the "I deserve" mentality.  I work hard, I go to church, I do this, I do that.  We want what we feel is our due.  And those people over there have it so much better than we do. Tell me, Who says what is better?  Who says that what they have is so special?

                We do.  People do.  We put a value on something and that's what puts it on the pedestal that it is on.  We place value on things and then a short while later, they don't matter any more.  There are bigger things and better things.  Why does the value change?  Because we consider the newer object as better.  (Christmas Syndrome- everything is great and then a birthday comes and you don't even remember what you got for Christmas)

                  Another example, I had a Mercury Sable.  It was a nice car.  I loved it.  She was my baby and man she could ride.  Then one day the transmission just went out.  I never knew what hit me.  It just happened.  And just like she just went out in a blink,  it was going to cost me just $1500.00 to fix her.  Well, I didn't have $1500.00 and I couldn't afford to fix the car and pay my bills too.  So there I was without transportation begging rides to work for five months.  (My job was a forty-five minute car ride there and forty five minutes back)  Not an easy feat.  I ended up working something out but it was tough.

                   Then a glory moment came.  One of the ladies I worked with, dad's had a car for sale.  A sweet deal.  No money down.  Get the car insured and registered and make payments.  You couldn't beat it.  She was a beauty.  Green, leather interior, 1998 Buick Park Avenue.  I was in love.  I can't remember my mercury or any other vehicle I have owned driving like my Buick.  I put such emphasis in this car.  I mean, why not, it is my car.

                 One afternoon, I am sleeping and I am woken up by a large crash.  I can hear rain pouring down.  Anyone who has ever lived in a mobile home should know that it sounds like the water is about to be on you any minute.  I open my front door and low and behold a huge limb from the very top of my Oh, so Dr. Seuss oak tree has decided to come crashing down on top of my new car.  Priceless!

                 My back windshield has exploded into millions of itty bitty pieces, it is raining so hard that the water is hurting my skin.  It was a nightmare.  I walked into my house, closed the door and said, "God, I know that there is not a tree on my car."  I walked back outside and guess what, the pinching wasn't working and a tree was still on top of my car.  How I got the limb off, I don't know.  I am guessing that as angry and upset as I was that pure adrenaline removed it.  I was so mad.  I was crying, I was yelling at the tree and at God.  Then a peace came over me.  I asked God, "Why? Why do bad things always happen to me?  I strive so hard to get things right and something is always happening to bring me down."  I heard this voice from inside of my soul.  It told me to go back and look at the scene of the "accident" just one more time.  I didn't want to.  I am thinking to myself, " I already tried that.  It was still broken, remember."  But, this voice, this feeling was so persistent, so back into the rain I went.  I looked up.  If that branch would have fallen ten feet to the right it would have landed on my roof right above my head where I slept.  I probably wouldn't have even known what hit me.  

                       My car was nice and it still is.  Plastic sheeting and black duct tape are definitely in style.  Especially, when they glam up the car of this God-loving girl.  The point is let's not let worldly gains and material possessions lock us up.  Let's not lose the opportunity for greater gains.  When I roll the dice I want to know that I am headed to Park Place and Boardwalk and I hope whoever owns them has every hotel they can buy on there.  Because If I have to be bankrupt on this earth, I know my riches are in heaven.

                 Love in Christ,

                       Kristine