Dec
5
It’s Not Supposed to Be This Way!
December 5, 2007 |
Wow, I love nights like I had last night! When God slaps me across the face and says, “Son, you got it good! Be grateful. Make the most of my blessings to you.”
I was in Columbus (Ohio’s state capitol) all day. I was returning home around dinner time. As it’s a two hour drive home, I started to think about the pit gnawing in my gut. As the miles rolled on, the pit got bigger and my stomach demanded that I feed it.
I remembered that my wife was up at church and had the kids. I didn’t think she was expecting me to pick them up. So, I stopped off at a sports bar/restaurant (or is it a sports restaurant/bar). In any case, I climbed up on a bar stool and sat next to this guy at least 10 years older than I am.
By the time I ordered my burger, I found out he was divorcing wife #2, learning that both #1 and #2 had cheated on him. He was unhappy with his job. Couldn’t stand sports (remember this is a sports bar) but he found himself in the sports business. And he wasn’t all that excited about his 21-year old son’s choice of majors.
Anyway, we’re talking back and forth - in between his attempts to pick up the 20-something bar waitress (who admitted at some point to having just gotten a DUI).
At about the point that my incredibly delicious burger was placed in front of me, this 20-something woman walks in looking for an empty seat. In mid-sentence, this guy next to me catches sight of her, stops talking to me, pulls his stuff out of her way, pulls out the empty bar stool on other side of him, and beckons her to join him. She does.
The next fifteen or so minutes are spent with him trying to buy her a shot of something I have never heard of, inquiring into her marital status and relationship status, and finally finding a rather delicate way of asking whether she was actually of age.
I didn’t hear much from her, except for something about whether she was “scaring” him off.
I finished my beer and burger, watched the last drive of Monday night’s Patriots/Ravens game on ESPN for the upteenth time, paid my bill, and left - without having said another word or received any sort of recognition from this guy since the time the 20-something had walked into the room.
And, all I could think of was - it’s not supposed to be this way, guys! If we are upstanding men on the right path, we are not going to have two wives cheat on us. We are not going to find ourself, middle-aged, trying to hook up with a twenty-something in a bar (especially when you consider that this 20-something gal is someone who comes to a sports bar and allows herself to be taken in by some 40 or 50-something like us).
I drove the rest of the 30 miles or so home in silence - just thanking God that I love my wife as much I do - that no matter what we go through, we will be together - eternally committed to each other.
Nights like this one are God telling me to appreciate what I have - what he has given to me. He gives us all what we are due. It’s up to us to receive it with the gratitude required of so precious a gift. My wife and my family are that precious gift.
If you have that gift, hold on to it with every fiber of your being. If you do not have that gift, go find it - without reservation - without holding back.
Don’t find yourself at a bar - alone - hopelessly trying to make a connection - no matter how weak.
And say a prayer for those who find themselves in such a situation.
