I have to tell you a story. I haven’t run this by my wife for permission, but I’m hoping she won’t read this.
We were in Maryland. We’d walked to a shopping center about a mile away, but we weren’t looking forward to walking back. It was a terribly hot day. So we got a ride on Uber. The nearest car was 20 minutes away. We waited.
The car arrived. I hopped in the front seat; my wife and sister-in-law hopped in the back seat. “You’ve got to be kidding me. I had to drive 20 minutes to take you guys one mile. This is ridiculous.”
Um. Awkward. I replied with a vague “oh man, that sucks” as if I didn’t know. The driver looked a bit rough – like he drove for Uber in between back alley league fights. Needless to say, we just all stayed silent for the next five minutes as he drove us to our Air BnB.
That’s when Uber’s GPS system told him to take a wrong turn. “You’ve arrived at your destination,” but we were in the middle of a highway.
“I don’t think this is right,” I chimed in.
“Hold on. Where am I taking you?”
“I’m sorry. I don’t really know where it is.”
“You don’t know where it is?! How do you not know where you’re going?!”
“We don’t live here.”
That’s when my wife pipes up from the back seat: “You don’t have to be so frickin’ rude.”
Oh boy. That set our driver off. “How am I being rude? $^*$, I’m not being rude. I’ll show you rude.”
We eventually got to the house. But it was a whole bunch of uncomfortable minutes trying to work everything out. And I’m not proud to say, I had some words with my wife. I was upset that she put me in that situation and she was upset that I was upset.
We worked it out. We laughed about it. And to be honest, now that I look back, I kind of love that my wife did that. I wish she had waited until we were out of the car. But that’s her. She can’t stand for something she thinks isn’t right. And even though that character trait might have manifested itself in a negative way, I still love it.
As I read through Scripture at the people God chose to use, I see people a lot like my wife. They were imperfect and did things at the wrong time. But I also see a God who actually seemed to love that about them.
- Jacob was cunning.
- David was emotionally unstable.
- Peter was a loud-mouth.
Could it be that God loves us, even with our imperfections? He actually gets a kick out of the immature ways we respond to injustice.
I’m convinced he wants us to mature beyond that. He wants us to learn. But I also believe He enjoys the fire He sees inside us. He’d rather we have a bit of immature fire than nothing.
I’m grateful God puts up with me in my immaturity. And not only puts up, but actually loves me in the middle of it. He’s willing to give us far more grace than we deserve. And that’s a comforting thing.