Code Adam -- Hope Chronicles 81

"Attention all booksellers. We have a Code Adam. Will please proceed to the door." If the words hadn't caught my attention, the urgency in her voice would have grabbed it.

Announcements over the speaker are pretty common. Typically, they are things like "Bookseller to the cafe at your convenience" or "Assistance to customer service."

Code Adam was not the usual message. Named for Adam Walsh who disappeared many years ago, "Code Adam" meant that we had a missing child hopefully still in the store." We were to go to customer service to get the distraction. Will would keep people from exiting.

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$2.62 and the Rules -- Hope Chronicles 29

They do not provide parking where I work. Free unlimited parking is about 3-4 blocks away and possibly more depending on when you arrive. If you park closer, you have to move your car every 90 minutes and then it cannot be moved within a 1 block radius or you get a ticket. (This happened to a coworker.)

There is a parking garage immediately across the street, but it is run by the city and there is a monthly fee. It's more expensive to pay by the day. Anyway, the walk is good for me. However, rain, snow (There is some in the forecast!), and sleet make me willing to pay on the particularly blustery days or when I have to hurry to be somewhere after work. There have been a rash of those days this week.

Two days ago, the parking attendant mentioned to me that since the rails were up, people were exiting without paying. He told me, if the rails are still up tomorrow, just go out the back where there isn't an attendant and that everyone else was doing it.

Okay, I had noticed the rails were up, but it had never dawned on me not to stop to pay. I also didn't know about going out the back.

Yesterday, as I got in my car I had the debate. The rails were still up and the parking attendant had suggested the back way. But I found that I couldn't do it. I had chosen to park in the garage for convenience and I owed.... I think I truly surprised the attendant when I told him I just couldn't do it. He gave me a genuine smile and said, "Just when I get ready to give up on humanity, someone does something nice!" Paying $2.62 (it was my short day) never felt so nice!

As you have surmised, I follow rules. Part of it for me is respect and if I think the rules are for my benefit. I've had a few people comment, "You drive at 10 and 2!" in reference to my hand position when driving. That's what my driver's ed teacher told me to do 23 years ago. He also told me not to eat while driving because you can't really see over that Big Mac. While I do occasionally do this, I try not to and get anxious enough doing it that it is a deterrent. I've never had a speeding ticket. Yes, I play by the rules.

I was an Interpersonal Communication major in undergrad. I remember learning about a study that was conducted on children on playgrounds. Researchers discovered that children on playgrounds without fences (rules) hovered together more in the center of the playground. When there was a fence, the children explored the entire playground. The fence/rules provided a sense of safety.

I think the same is true of rules for us as Christians. God provided the rules not to put a damper on things but to give us a sense of safety. While sometimes the rules may seem to chafe, ultimately they are in place for our good.

The hardest time to follow the rules is when we doubt the intention of the one who created the rules. Isn't that where Satan attacked in the Garden of Eden. He didn't come out and say that rule is silly or wrong. Rather, he suggested that God was holding back on Adam and Eve. He made them doubt God's character.

We can find hope in knowing that God's intentions towards us is always, always for our best. Knowing that sets us free to be who God created us to be. And following the rules even when you could just go out the back may turn in to an unlikely witness!

First Contact

"I should move to the middle of nowhere and just become a hermit." I've had this thought at times. It's not very practical given that I have absolutely zero survival skills in the wilderness. I'ld starve to death in no time flat.

Typically, this thought is born out of a sense of isolation. If I were in the middle of nowhere, I wouldn't be disappointed by people and things. I would know that I had no cell phone reception, so no one would be calling or writing or whatever. I wouldn't be disappointed. But I also don't think I would be happy.

C.S. Lewis wrote, "We are born helpless. As soon as we are fully conscious, we discover loneliness. We need other physically, emotionally, intellectually; we need them if we are to know anything, even ourselves." I found this quote in a magazine 20 odd years ago. I was so struck by it, I cut it out and taped it into the front cover of my favorite Bible.

But connecting in our busy world takes a lot of time. There are phones and e-mails to answer. (Rather than freeing us, I think cell phones and text messaging may have just made our leashes longer and given us more rope to hang ourselves!) There are schedules to arrange. I understand all of that, but there is still that longing.

There is a book out called The Five Love Languages. It's meant for married people, but I think it applies to singles as well. The love languages are touch, service, words of affirmation, gifts, and quality time.

My primary love langauge is quality time. I crave uninterrupted quality time. We can even be doing something together but I need to feel connected. For example, my all time favorite day was with my friend Jill about a year ago. I needed her advice on office space. She went with me to see the spaces I had narrowed down and then we went to lunch. After that, we headed to her house to do some Thanksgiving preparation. It wasn't so much that it was a heavy talk time. It was being together uninterrupted. I just felt so connected.

But as I've been thinking about it lately, I realize that just as much as I crave that time with others, God craves that time with me. I do it, but sometimes "His time" is fit in amongst all the other myriad details of my life. Sometimes, it is in fits and pieces, starts and stops.

He wants to connect even more than I do. Perhaps, if I realign my priorities and make that time more central, some of that craving will be eased.

I read a book a number of years ago regarding gender roles. While I won't open that can of worms in this post, one thought has always stuck with me. I probably won't say it right. While God created Eve to help fulfill that need for community within Adam, Eve's first contact was not with Adam. Her first, most primal, contact was with God when He formed her from Adam's side.

Her first most primal contact was with God. And isn't that true for us as well in that God "knit us together in our mother's womb?" Perhaps, God is calling me to renew that "first most primal contact" with Him.

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Somewhat of a sidenote, I received a really lovely comment from someone today on my "Deadman's Crawl" post. I wanted to write you back, but found that I couldn't. So, if you commented on that post, check it out. I've responded to you there. And thank you -- it meant a lot.