Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Grocery Store Drifters

Grocery stores have always been a bit boring to me.  To compensate, I look for entertainment to pass the time, as entertainment in the store can be hard to find, I have often had to be self entertaining.  In my early twenties, my roommates and I would go late night shopping, depositing strange and sundry items in each others carts and would later watch the reactions as they would take out feminine products, fuses, weird toys and such at the check out counters.  After a few times of this and never being tricked myself, we decided to switch and surprise unsuspecting strangers.  After becoming a parent and having a 2 and 3 year old and seeing the same boredom tendency in them, I invited them to sit on my feet and hold on tight.  I would then try to shake them off while shopping and get away (sometimes running, while pushing the cart and shopping) and they would chase me down the aisles and latch back on as often as they could.  We would shop the WHOLE store that way, much to their amusement and to others watching.  This became a tradition to them and they were relentless in hopping on with each visit to the store.  I finally had to put my foot down (actually they were down... solidly) and end this routine when they reached their teen years.  This is also a better exercise than attaching those sissy little ankle weights for leg strengthening.   At other times I will exit a store and hop on the cart as it moves down the slight incline of the lot (which must be catchy because I have also watched Milea try it). The other day, I again found myself bored as I shopped in our local grocery.  Not having my wife to tease or make laugh, I once again had to be creative and find something new.  I noticed that either the floor or my cart's wheels were slightly slick.  I tried "drifting" the cart through the store. Watch the following video if you don't know what drifting is (the best drift is in the last 10 seconds.  To view best one, after catching the drift of drifting, click to the last quarter inch of the video timeline and watch to the end).
  Even though my cart was going straight down an aisle, it was at a 25-30 degree angle, thus the drift.  It was great fun, (okay, maybe not great, but fun.) As soon as I let go of the cart's handle it would zip back to tracking correctly.  I wish I were talented enough to do it in my car (or better yet, that I had a car that had the potential to drift on dry pavement! Oh well, a guy can dream can't he?)  Life will be as boring as you allow it to be.
  Drifting... Drifting on dry pavement in a car takes skill and power.  Drifting as a believer can be deadly.
  Drifting as a believer is like a log out on the water, anchored to nothing firm.  It is influenced and moved by anything that goes by, the wind, waves or even anybody that decides to latch on to you.
Eph 4:14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; 
Someone that is adrift, just going through the motions of the christian life, is immature and vunerable from all sides. Lets look briefly at this next verse.
1Pe 3:15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:
Sanctify (set apart, to give its rightful high place), give answer for the reason (be ready by reason of knowing what and why you believe, other than tradition and what your denomination may or may not believe), with meekness and fear (with mildness... not raising your voice and getting all defensive, because of the confidence that is within you out of the reverence that you have for the Father).
Official SMB Version... 1Peter 3:15 Love the Father with all your heart, so much so, that you have gotten to know Him so well that you can share Him confidently, with anybody, under any circumstance and without any fear of blowing it.

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