Thursday, June 19, 2008

Maybe my least favorite NYC moment?

While riding the subway home last night after having dinner with a friend, I opened my resting eyes for a second while the train stopped to make sure I wasn't missing my stop. About 3 seconds later, a grande Starbucks cup and juice box hit me on my neck and face and I had coffee dripping down the side of my face into my shirt.

As my tired brain tried to understand what had happened and why, the three jr high girls who I had been sharing the subway car with, laughed and ran out the open doors. Apparently, they thought it would be funny to throw trash at me from across the car as they got off. I must admit they had surprisingly good aim.

I'd had an emotionally draining day and to my horror felt tears welling up and my throat closing off as my humiliation sunk in. Three 12 or 13 year olds had just thrown trash at me simply because I was the only other person on the car. Not a great ending to the day.

Several hours later as I was consolling myself with the hateful thoughts that those girls would probably never even get out of the neighborhood they live in and would never become anything in life, I was reminded of the verse about how God cares for the sparrows and if He cares for these, how much more does He care for me ... and those three girls. My anger turned to sadness as I remembered Jesus' words shortly after this verse, commanding against judgement and providing the incredible word picture of a man with an enormous log in his eye trying to point out the tiny splinter or speck in someone else's eye. I was reminded to focus on my own vast areas of sin instead of the small short comings of others.

3 comments:

Will said...

Ahh, sorry to hear that happened! :( You and Jason are so understanding and patient with people. I don't know how you two do it; if they got to talk with you for even a minute I'm sure they would've regretted it (and not just because you're much taller and stronger). Anyways, I would've chased them down...

Molly W. said...

Oh Carrie I'm so sorry that happened to you. But you certainly are right in what you said. Sigh...man, loving others is hard and I often don't want to! Esp those mean girls!!

Kim said...

Bless you Carrie for taking a horrible incident and finding the light of Jesus in it. A true sign of spiritual wisdom and maturity...