for 17 SEP 05: WHO RULES?

(BLOGGER'S NOTE: You may find this humorous, serious, or a little of both - but from time to time, we offer things to reflect upon as we keep the seventh-day Sabbath.)

There's only one way in, and one way out. The signs outside the Mildred Terry Branch Library make it clear. So when someone's car blocks the only way out, it can cause problems - and when the driver leaves the car running, in that neighborhood he risks grand theft.

That's what I encountered Friday at the Mildred Terry Library. I entered from Seventh Street, parked in the parking lot, used a computer for about 30 minutes - then was blocked from using the only way out by a green idling car. This was one time where an SUV might have been helpful, to roll over curbs and grass to get out.

But I have a humble Honda, so I rolled to the parking lot entrance and decided to wait on the driver of the green car. He entered the library through the back door, while I walk around and go in the front door. So I get more exercise, AND save on gasoline.

I only had to wait about a minute before the driver of the green car came out. He saw me waiting, and pointed to the open entryway from Seventh Street. That lane had crossed my mind. But with my luck, a car would have turned in as I tried to pull out - resulting in a Civic sandwich.

"That's one-way in the other direction," I explained to the driver still blocking the way out to Veterans Parkway.

"But it's open," he said.

"But it's marked as one-way."

"Rules are made to be broken," he said as he closed the door inside his idling green car. He didn't need to recite that philosophy in words -- his car already said it for him.

"No, sir. Rules are made to be obeyed." I doubt the man heard that, because he was closing his green car door -- so I never finished my poem: "That's a rhyme which works every time."

That 15-second conversation revealed a difference in mindset -- one which sets me apart from a lot of other people, and probably sets many Christians apart from the world at large. It's called obedience. President Clinton called it "playing by the rules" -- although we all remember what happened to him....

Many people don't want to be obedient. You see it on talk shows, where people "do something for me" as opposed to their loved ones. You saw it in New Orleans, as people looted stores. And you see it in library driveways - where some people apparently don't mind letting $2.70-a-gallon gas burn for minutes.

Some people might even say we shouldn't be obedient. They might call for "thinking outside the box." But while there are times and places to do that, the people who promote obedience often find themselves outside other people's boxes - and getting stuffed back in boxes, by people holding duct tape.

Scoffers say blind obedience leads to Nazism or Communism. But it's also at the core of being a Christian -- obeying the law of God. Amazingly, the people who support separation of church and state have NOT yet tried to revoke Bible-based laws against murder and stealing.

Oh yes, by the way: as the green car left the library driveway in front of me, the driver turned right onto Veterans Parkway. It's a divided four-lane road in that block. So why didn't Mr. Rule-Breaker turn left, and take on two lanes of traffic in the wrong direction?

(Then again, maybe I'm guilty of being a judgmental Christian with all of this. The driver of the green car may be allergic to parking lots....)

P.S.: About our title today -- I try to let God rule over me. How would YOU answer that question?

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