What We Learned from Being Robbed!

Last Sunday evening my family and I were robbed! Okay, no one held a gun or a knife to us and said, "Your money or your life!", but it was still a very surreal experience and believe it or not, God taught us some rich lessons through it.

THE STORY:

Last Sunday I was guest speaker at Mosaic Church in College Park. This is a great church plant - mostly college students and young professionals - whose pastor recently stepped down. Pray for them.

My family went with me and after church they were taking me to the Brazilian Steakhouse in Baltimore for Father's Day. We got to the church fairly early so we decided to make a McDonald's run for some coffee. Big mistake! I'm not quite sure what happened, but we placed a very simple order and got just about every kind of coffee, latte, mocha, etc. except what we ordered! We tried three times to get it right and then we had to leave and rush back to Mosaic. We were almost late. We all jumped out of the van and ran inside with barely five minutes to spare. I hit the lock button on the key remote and all is good...or so we thought!

When the service was over my family physically ushered me from the building (they know I like to hang around and talk) so that we would not be late for our reservations at Foggo De Chao (the steak house). As we all got back in the van we noticed that every cup of coffee was overturned and we began to lecture each other about being more careful. It was then that I reached up to put the address of the steakhouse in my GPS and noticed it was not there. A quick glance to the floor board showed that it had not fallen. I immediately asked Janice to check her wristlet which she had placed under her seat. Her bank card and a large amount of cash were missing. All in all they made off with my GPS, my brand new Blackberry Curve, Janice's cell phone, and the cash and bank card.

I was kicking myself for thinking I had locked the van but failing to do so. When the police officer arrived he took the report and then asked me if the window on the driver's door had always been that way. It was only then that I noticed it was slanting out and away from the door by about a quarter inch at the top. Pros had "popped" the window without breaking it!

We later found out that they had tried to use the bank card six times in less than an hour, and probably used up a fair amount of minutes on our cell phones before we had the card and phones deactivated.

I have spent the last week answering questions for police reports, contacting the insurance company, replacing cell phones, etc.

THE LESSONS:

1. The thief always attacks when you least expect it. It often happens when you are most distracted.

2. Just because you are doing God's work does not mean that the thief will leave you alone. I am convinced it was because we were at church (and probably because the windows on this particular van are an easy target) that we were the victims. Serving God will cost you. Not serving Him will cost you more!

3. The thief has his best chance when we are most smug and most careless. We really should have been more careful about what we left in plain sight. We just never thought it would happen to us!

4. The thief cannot steal your joy unless you let him. The most awesome thing about the night is that we gave our report to the police and went to the steak house (with the wind whistling through the popped window) and had a great time! My family is awesome!


5. Stuff is just stuff! A year ago my type A personality would have had me conducting my own personal manhunt to find the thieves who would dare target me! Other than feeling a little violated, I really don't care that it happened. No really! All of the stuff they took will just be junk in a few years anyway. It just does not matter.

6. God protects in ways we do not know. Chris, my son, is very strict with his nutrition since he is a certified fitness trainer. He asked for the keys before I began speaking because he was due for one of his "mini-meals" and supplements. He never went to the van. He said later that he was full and just did not want to eat. If you know Chris, that never happens! I believe God let him feel full to protect him. Maybe the thieves were just kids who would have run away, but what if it were a gang or professionals with knives or guns and he just happened to walk up on them in the act?

God is always better to us than we deserve and all that really matters, when it is all said and done, is loving God, loving others, enjoying this life and gettin' ready for where we will spend eternity!