innocence

This past week we had the, quite unplanned, unwanted, unnecessary, uncool, opportunity to know what it feels like to be a victim of idiot thieves. We joined the thousands who have been victims of “forced entry burglary”. Our house was broken into on Wednesday afternoon within the one short hour that we were across the street at the office. The general theory is that we were being watched…..like I should feel important or something that low life thieves with bad family histories were watching my life. The only thing that I take comfort in is that, for all the effort they went through to turn our house upside down like a CIA raid, there was not much to be had. I wonder why that is? Oh, yeah, because we don’t have much. Don’t get me wrong, as far as much of the rest of the world goes, we are wealthy beyond measure, and we are grateful and enjoy everything that we have. What I mean is, in the land of thieves, it wasn’t exactly “Oceans Eleven”. Certainly not worth going to jail for, or being very physically injured if either myself or my wife caught them in the act.
I can’t really describe to you how it feels, and we’re certainly better off than many who have gone through this. People who have been through this type of thing say that you feel violated and insecure. I guess so. The officer who took the report was very kind and really felt bad for us. He called us “nice people”. I guess so. It would still be a crime though even if I were an ass.
Stolen from us, besides a sense of security, were the usual things that low lifes, who’d rather take your stuff or mine than get their own, take. I’m sure it was to feed a drug habit or some such social illness. The “nice” people would say that I need to be compassionate, these people are victims themselves….whatever. My practical self would like to pound the crap out of them, one shot for every minute that I have to wait at the department of licensing to replace m stolen license. And I’d like to add a shot for every stupid piece of identification that I need to bring with me to prove who I really am.
Sitting here this morning, consuming caffeine by the beach, I am reminded what was really lost in all of this. Because of an unusual dose of sunshine, there are an abnormal amount of little cuties wandering around the place this morning. The looks on their face are a mixture of wonder, joy, amusement, and innocence. I hope that they can be spared this kind of crap for a very long time. I still remember the time we lived in a small Midwest town and had to explain to a two year old why some low life would have stolen her bike. There is too much innocence lost, way too early, in what we arrogantly claim to be the greatest country ever formed. Excuse me if I’m not always impressed with our version of greatness.
In my Pastoral artist role, I am asked to defend a God who “allows” these kinds of things, and infinitely worse to happen. It’s an obstacle to their own belief they say. My thoughts are simply these….with the evil that permeates the world in the forms that we read about or experience every day, I have to believe that there is an alternative. There is a remedy to evil. I have to have faith in God, because it’s too painfully obvious where the alternative lies. The Book of Books, clearly spells out evil in all of its forms. It is no surprise to me, being robbed I mean. Statistically it’s only been a matter of time….although statistically I’d rather have won the lottery to be honest. My role tells me at times that I should pray for these individuals that I currently refer to as low lives. The best I can do at the moment is to pray for lost innocence.