Everybody, Always

kids; I’m trying to be present. There’s a big difference between the two.
One thing I’ve learned from Jesus is extravagant love is never wasted.
Yours won’t be either if you keep running home.
When I finished speaking at the last of several services at Randy’s
church, I jumped into my rental car and bolted for the airport to get home
for the last couple of plays of the Super Bowl. It was going to be tight,
like usual. When I got to the rental-car return lot, there were a couple of
lines with an attendant at the front of each. I chose my line and began
waiting. Nothing happened for several minutes, so I craned my neck out
the window to see what was the holdup. At the front of this line, an
attendant was staring into the air as if he were trying to remember the
words to a Rolling Stones song. I jiggled my foot on the brake
impatiently. I tapped my fingers on the dashboard. After five minutes, I
let out an audible, exasperated, “Really?” into my empty car. All the
while, the line next to me was moving along just fine. I was more than a
little peeved, I can’t deny, as the cold realization sunk in. I got “that
guy.”
You know the one I’m talking about. The only gears he seemed to
have were slow, stop, and reverse. I sat in my rental car, fingers still
drumming on the steering wheel, waiting for him to gain consciousness.
The car in front of me started to inch forward, but then it happened again.
Entire seasons changed while I waited. I inched forward again. I was at
the height of my frustration when I noticed my bucket in the passenger
seat. I had completely forgotten about it.
“Fill it with patience,” I said to myself over and over. “Fill it with
patience.” Finally, the attendant slowly lumbered toward me. I’ve seen
glaciers move faster. He opened the door slowly and asked, “How was
your rental-car experience?”
In the old days, I would have just clocked him with my bucket or
made a wisecrack to let him know what a lousy job he was doing and how
he had made me miss my flight.
Something different was going on inside me this time, though. For