Could you?

Could you put your entire life into 1 bag?

As I was riding the bus this morning without the typical distractions of my ipod (no headphones) or a book, I was able to sit back and wonder. There was a man, he was asleep leaning forward resting his head on the handle of his large suitcase. Now this man was sitting on a row of seats by himself, why, well no one wanted to sit near him, he was dirty and smelled so badly that it reminded me of the burning trash in Uganda, my mother would know the stench. It is one of those scents that you forget about when you are away from it, but as you travel closer to the city you begin to get faint wafts of it in your nostrils and you may twitch a bit. You can't quite place the scent you just know you don't want to smell it again. But unfortunately you enter into the city and the scent only gets stronger, so strong that you think that if you don't get away from it soon, you may throw up. Well he smelled like that. He had 2 rows to each side of him completely empty and well I sat in the third row behind him with an open window in front of me, ever so slightly gasping for the smell of exhaust because it smelled better. After a few minutes of this I thought, even in the midst of the smells of Uganda, God taught me something remarkable, maybe I need to keep my eyes and ears open and look for what God is trying to show me on the bus.

So I sat and I waited, and then I began to look, genuinely look at the man sitting there sleeping. He was sleeping in a pure exhausted state, you know what I am talking about that point where you are so tired it doesn't matter where you are or what your are doing or even who you are with, you fall asleep. I know I have done it and I am sure many of you have as well. And there he was, out, one hand resting on his suitcase, his head leaning on the handle of the bag.

Just one bag. Just one.

How is it he could get his entire life into that bag? And that is when I started to really think about this trip. Would I be able to put my life into one bag. Maybe a super huge expandable Mary Poppins kind of bag. But just a regular suitcase I don't know if I could. WIth Joey and I looking at new opportunities and the possibilty of moving we have had to reflect on all that God has blessed us with and what we are now going to do with it. Would we really be able to take it all with us or will we have to try and figure out a way to put it all into that "one" bag. Sifting through all of the memories and the countless blessings we have received what is it that we could leave behind. And could we?

I honestly don't know.

So then I started to think about all that this man had in his bag, were there pictures of people and memories long gone. Or maybe it was just filled with clothes and belongings from his past. So then I started to think of if I had to put everything into one bag, what would I put in it.

A wedding picture, I have this one that every time I look at and it takes me right back to the moment when Joey kissed me for the first time as his wife. Next I would put in a pair of clean undies and socks (cuz well you just feel clean when you put clean ones on), then there would be more pictures of my family and friends, pictures of my grandparents when they were young and first dating, then some pictures of my nieces and nephews and more pictures of my family and joey and I. Well then we (Joey and I) would need a change of clothes, probably clothes that we can layer. Good shoes. And well after that I am not sure.

Wow, I guess I need to put some thought into this. But most of all I need to acknowledge and embrace the things in my life that God has brought into it and what I am supposed to do with those things. Hmmmm this is going to take some time.

I guess I had a pretty meaningful I spy moments, those moments where God is so clearly present and I was receptive to seeing and hearing all he had to say. So as I got of the bus I slipped some money into the mans hand and went on with my day with one thought running through my mind.

If all I had in the world needed to fit into one bag, what would I put inside it? What would you put inside it and could you put your life into just one bag?

Riding the Bus

So about 2 weeks ago I started riding the bus to save money and wear and tear on my car. It has been an interesting experience to say the least. I have seen old men give up their seats to little children, two kids trying to impress their mother by their perfect behavior as to determine who was going to have their new library book read first, to a homeless women having a bilingual argument with herself, then there is my favorite, I call him Counter, he is a man who continuously counts his fingers in repetition starting with his pinkie on his left hand and finishing with his pinkie on his right hand.

But yesterday afternoon I think I finally saw the highlight to date of this whole bus experience for me, Jesus Christ and the Queen of Heaven had a heated argument at a bench at the station. After about 20 minutes the argument finally ended when Jesus informed the Queen to kiss his white Jewish a**!!!

Wow, I guess I could express my surprise by this whole encounter but I think I am more bewildered that Jesus Christ would end an argument with a comment like that, I guess I just assumed that when Jesus Christ was ending a discussion it would end with, "Blessings..." Boy was I wrong.

There will be more to come on my bus experiences. I hope you enjoyed them so far.