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Can the Holy Spirit be beaten by $84?

1:00am Friday, 20th August 2010

Tim Adeney on everyday life

I don’t think anyone likes parking police. And we love the feeling of beating them.
And perhaps we have good reason.
The other day, as I left work early, I noticed the parking police marking the cars around me. This, I thought, created the opportunity for an all-day parking spot; whoever parked there after me wouldn’t get marked, and so when the rangers returned in an hour would be ‘safe’. I rang my colleague, still at work, to let him know his good fortune.
Alas, the ‘police’ returned, marked his car, and an hour later there was an $84 fine. We had failed in war, but they had cheated; the ticket indicating that the infringing hour started before my phone call. Thus justifying our ongoing dislike, and fueling our suspicion that it really is all about revenue.
But this dislike and anger - even when
justified, obscures the good they do.
Consider this. If I find a park - I take it. When I check after an hour, if the tyres aren’t marked - I stay. And if I happen along an all-day parking spot - I take it quickly. And after a few hours, as regenerate as I am, as transformed by the Holy Spirit, as redeemed by the blood of Christ, I don’t start thinking about whether it might be nice to give someone else a turn - my car remains.
But the sight of chalk or uniform will succeed where inner motivation failed.
The rangers are there to help me share.