The Parking Slot
From Pastor Tim’s article in the 5/11/16 Weekly Update
As I drive carefully into the Kohl’s parking lot I see what every driver loves to spot, a car in a deluxe parking slot near the entrance is backing out and opening it up for me. I glide my silver Camry into the slot, claiming it as my own for the next 30 minutes or so. Only it isn’t really mine.
Although I am quick to identify it as “mine” at no point in time do I really have ownership of it. The ground probably belongs to a title company that leases the acreage to the store or to a company that actually owns the buildings. It clearly isn’t mine.
I would never be allowed to buy a shed and place it in that slot. I couldn’t build a campfire and invite friends over to roast hot dogs and make s’mores. I couldn’t install a swimming pool in that slot and drop by every day to do laps. The slot isn’t really mine.
I’m granted the opportunity to park there while I shop, but the arrangement is just temporary. I’m subject to the rules, and laws give the owner the right to do whatever he wants to do with that slot and the hundreds of others just like it.
If a huge snowstorm hits the region the owner can shut down the entire lot for a few hours to clear the snow. He has that right. I have no recourse other than an angry Facebook post or a letter to the editor. If he chooses to put a fresh coat of sealer on the lot or repaint the parking stripes, he’s allowed to do that because it belongs to him. I’m not allowed to paint any part of my slot.
Isn’t it funny how we can so quickly and easily see the boundaries that exist in the world of parking spaces but miss the identical principles that come with God’s ownership of my life? It’s His world, not mine. He has the right to do what He wants to do with my life, my health, my plans; because it all belongs to Him.
He allows me to park in a slot for 60, 70 or 80 years, but at no point do those years change ownership and become mine. My life is His and always will be. I have no right to alter, destroy or claim it as my own. Every decision should be prefaced by the question, “Does the owner approve?”
God has given you the chance to exist for a short time in His parking lot called life. His will is for you to enjoy it and not worry about any of the details of maintaining it. Since it belongs to Him He will take care of all that. For now, park and rest in the slot He has provided and live with the awareness that someday someone else will park where you are right now. That’s okay, because when that time comes you won’t need it anymore.
