Take Nothing for Granted, Part I

With a title like that, you might be expecting something serious. Well in a roundabout sort of way, it is. But first, a story.

Thursday my roommate came home with a sweet batch of Arbucks-stay* banana bread. Apparently he scored it from some employees who were about to toss it because it was a day old or something. Like any generous roommate, he offered some to me also.

My plan was to take a piece of banana bread to work on Friday morning and devour it during my coffee break. Friday morning rolled around and in my rush to get out the door, I left the banana bread behind. I realized my mistake on the way to work and yelled "Stupid! Stupid!" at myself inside my head. Then I spent the rest of the day anticipating the delight I would have by remembering to bring the banana bread to work today.

This morning I woke up, showered, put lunch together, and packed my banana bread snugly next to my sandwich in my lunch bag. I drove to work, put it all in the refrigerator, and then something happened. One of the nurses came in to work and brought with her a specially-made batch of... you guessed it, banana bread. What could I do? Of course I couldn't turn down more free food, so I ate the banana bread she brought in (which was delicious, by the way). Meanwhile, mine stayed in my lunch bag all day and came home with me tonight.

I was thinking about the whole thing tonight, and I was reminded of a verse in the Bible that says:

Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. - James 4:13-14

How true this is. The verse is talking about taking big things for granted, but I think we need to be careful of taking the little things for granted also. I was caught in the act taking my morning banana bread for granted, and what a small thing. Yet we sometimes find that we have far less control over situations than we'd like. So if it's a steady job, a warm place to sleep, or even a morsel of food, be thankful and diligent; it could be taken away at any time. Next time I'll talk about a friend of mine named Dusty.

Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. - Psalm 90:12


*This is a fictitious name of a real coffee shop that might not want the world knowing that it sometimes gives away food that would end up in the dumpster anyway.