Repossession and Redemption

“Christie, honey, there’s someone here to pick up your Jeep,”

I was staying with my aunt at the time, and she’d just come back to her guest bedroom to inform me that someone was in her front yard to repossess my vehicle.

“I tried to talk to him to see if there was anything we could work out, but he said he didn’t have the authority to do anything. I wish I would have known sooner!” she said. “They’re not really supposed to do this, but he said you can go get your stuff out  before he takes it.”

The heartbreak and concern in my aunt’s voice was audible.

I was in my early twenties at the time. I’d gone from having my own place, working three jobs, perfect credit, and paying my bills like clockwork, to crying in my aunt’s front yard as I filled a trash bag with my personal belongings from a vehicle that was about to be carried off on a rollback truck because of non-payment.

Not my finest hour.

However, this memory is now one I cherish.

Sounds crazy, right? But let me explain.

You see, a while before this, while I was living “high on the hog,” during a gossip-fueled conversation, I’d heard the story of someone I knew whose vehicle had gotten repossessed, and I’d made sure to pass my judgment on the matter.

“Why would they let that happen?! I mean, work and pay your bills. It’s not that hard.”

Yeah, also not my finest hour.

As I watched my beautiful, red Jeep Wrangler leave my aunt’s driveway that day, those harsh, judgmental words I’d so carelessly spoken came screaming back to me with a vengeance.

Talk about a humbling experience.

I’ll never forget that day or that feeling. It was a hard lesson to learn, but one I’m so grateful for.

It’s so easy for us to pass judgment on others without even considering their upbringing, their traumas, their circumstances, their mental state, or even their humanity.

It’s so easy for us to say, “I’d never,” or “That would never happen to me,” but I learned a long time ago never to say never with a haughty attitude, because life has a way of turning your “never” into a hard lesson that will slap you right upside your haughty head!

Do people make bad choices? Absolutely! And sometimes those choices go from being a conscious decision to a snowball headed for hell that can’t be stopped, and they're forced to suffer the consequences.

But let’s be honest here, we’ve ALL made bad choices. I could write a book on mine!

(Maybe I will. )

Sometimes we’re able to hide those bad choices before anybody knows about them, and other times they’re put on full display for everybody to see. Sometimes things happen to us as a result of other people’s choices.

My point is, we’re all only one step away from making a bad decision at any given moment.

This is why we need to pray for guidance, wisdom, mercy, grace, humility, and most of all, love.

We need to strive to love others the way our Creator loves us. This means loving our friends and families, our neighbors, our community, our country, our world, and even our enemies.

It doesn’t mean we have to agree with, or support their decisions. It doesn’t mean we have to march in the streets to prove we love others. It doesn’t mean we have to stand on a soapbox and proclaim how good our hearts are.

It means being a friend to someone whose friends have abandoned them.

It means forgiving someone who’s wronged us.

It means offering a hand to someone who’s fallen.

It means living a life that paves a better way for the ones walking behind us.

It means looking for a solution to the problem instead of screaming about the problem.

It means punching that little judgmental devil off our shoulder, and taking a hard look in the mirror.

Yes, this includes me.

I’ll never claim to have all the answers, but I will always share the valuable lessons that God continues to teach me.