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3 Ugly Tires: The Lesson They Taught Me by Rev. Bob Baril |
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Last night (Wed. April 26, 2006) my wife, Mary Ann and I arrived at the parking lot of our small church to find an unpleasant surprise. There were 3 big, ugly, used tires that someone had discarded in our church's lot. "What do people think this is, a dumping ground for their old tires?!" she said, annoyed. I was much more annoyed. We had just come from a "date"- dinner at a nice Italian restaurant, and were arriving for our church's Wednesday night prayer meeting. I was not in the mood to deal with abandoned old tires. The tires presented a dilemma. Our dumpster company really does not want us throwing tires in the dumpster, and they'd take up a lot of room in there. But, how could I get rid of them? The church is located in a congested, economically disadvantaged section of downtown Framingham, Massachusetts. Next door to the church is a vacant lot- an eyesore which is filled with junk and debris, including some old tires. I was SO tempted to just throw the tires into that lot! I then realized that I complain about looking at the lot and the junk thrown there. If I threw junk into the lot, I'd be a hypocrite. I considered bringing the tires to the Framingham recycling center later in the week, but the recycling center expressly forbids "commercial" trash, and technically this would be commercial trash. Frustrated, I decided to lug the tires to the sidewalk, thinking, "Well, the Town will just have to deal with them! Nobody will know I put them there!" Initially, I was going to put them on the sidewalk on the church's side of the street, but I quickly realized that directly across the street from the church is a TIRE SHOP! I really didn't want to just throw the tires over the fence into the tire shop's parking lot, althought that WAS tempting. I decided to lay the tires on the sidewalk in front of the tire ship. "Maybe they will just take them and throw them out with their other discarded tires," I thought, "and if they don't want them, well, they can just leave them on the sidewalk for the Town to deal with." We had a good prayer meeting. This morning, I went out to breakfast with a businessman (and friend) who is one of our church Members. He was in a mood to walk, and since it was a beautiful day and I was wearing tennis shoes, we went for a walk after breakfast. It was a great time. When I arrived at the church office, my ecstasy turned to DREAD. Although no actual messages were left on the church's answering machine, the Caller I.D. indicated 2 calls from the tire shop across the street- one at 8:00 a.m. and one at 9:15 a.m. "They're going to accuse me of leaving those tires there!" I thought, worried. Maybe somebody saw me and told them. "What will I tell them?" Frankly "chicken" I decided against calling them back! I had already decided to do some badly needed yardwork at the parsonage and later on the church property for the afternoon. It was hard to get ANY work done at the church office as I was dreading the phone ringing! After heading home and having lunch, I changed clothes and went to work on mowing the parsonage lawn. "Maybe they'll get sick of calling," I thought, "Yes, they'll stop after awhile. I won't really have to talk to them." After mowing the lawn, I headed over to the church to do a little "sprucing up" on the grounds. The first thing I did was head inside and check the answering machine. Yes, there HAD been another call from the tire store- right after I'd left to go to lunch. Once again, there was no message. The last thing in the world I wanted to do was call them back, only to be accused, humiliated, and listen to one of those condescending, "What kind of a Christian are you, anyway?!" speeches. I hesitated. I almost didn't call them back. I prayed, "God, should I call the guy?". I knew the answer. Then, a knot in my stomach, I picked up the phone and called the tire shop. The owner who answered the phone immediately sounded accusatory and authoritarian. It was that same tone as when a police officer at your car window tells you, "I clocked you at 82-miles-per hour!". The tire guy said, "I want to know about how 3 tires showed up on the sidewalk outside my shop!" Gulping, I told him I'd put them there. Nervously, I proceeded to tell him the whole story. "Well, pastor," he said with a scolding tone, "I have to PAY two dollars a tire to get rid of those!" "If you want, I'll just bring you over 6 bucks, or I'll just come and get them and bring them back to my property," I offered. There was a brief pause, and an AMAZING change in his tone. "Well, I know the little s__t who left those tires in your lot" he said. "You...you know who left them there?!" I nervously asked. "Yup. The little s__t was a customer of ours yesterday. I told him we'd take his old tires and get rid of them for him but it would cost him two dollars a tire. He would have not part of it." Then, he added, "I drove by your parking lot after work, and saw that he'd thrown the tires there. When I came to the shop this morning, I just wondered why you brought them across the street to our place." I did what I often do when I am nervous. I repeated my whole story, but this time with a lot more confidence. "Look, Pastor," he said, "I'll just get rid of them." I replied, "I guess I could have called you and told you I left the tires there." He agreed with that, but now there was a warm, friendly tone. Hanging up the phone, I realized my integrity had been tested. For that matter, the tire store owner's integrity had also been tested. In his case, knowing a customer of his had thrown his old tires in our lot, he really should have removed the tires before I ever arrived for prayer meeting, knowing it would be much easier for the tire shop to dispose of them, and knowing that indirectly the tire shop was responsible for what happened. In my case, I believe the tire story guy expected me to deny leaving the tires- to lie, become angry, and prove that as a Christian I was just another phoney. Thus, his accusatory tone. It was a very real temptation. I wish I could tell you there's no way I would have sinned like that- but frankly, I very easily COULD have. JOB 27:5 says, "...till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me." I surprised the tire guy very much today. Well, GOD did the surprising, and GOD gets the glory. It was a close call. I'm not writing this to brag. There are a number of times I've really blown my Christian witness and testimony due to not walking with integrity. No, I'm not going to tell you about those. But this one has made me do a lot of thinking and soul-searching. As I went back to yardwork, my first thought was, "This story would make a great article for a Christian magazine." I also considering writing it as an entry on my blog. But I decided to share it. I share it as a reminder we will ALL have our integrity tested. I hope you'll think of this story about 3 UGLY TIRES and the lesson they taught me, and that it will help you to keep your integrity. If this story has blessed you in any way, I'd love to hear from you at RevRBaril@aol.com REV BOB BARIL FIRST ASSEMBLY OF GOD OF FRAMINGHAM, MA |