Some of the strangest people I have ever seen can be found on Venice Beach in California. If you have ever been there, you know exactly what I mean, unless you are one of the people I am talking about, in which case you probably think you are normal.I don't mean strange in a bad way. I mean strange like playing an electric guitar while wearing a battery backpack and roller skating. Or sitting by the ocean with a cardboard sign advertising yourself as a one man band with instruments attached to every joint, digit, and orifice making a cacophony of impossible music.
These people always make me laugh, but they are definitely out there on the weird register and scare me a little too. I remember once I saw a "Dog Whisperer" show of one of these Venice Beach small business freak show owners. The whole family, including the baby, was covered with piercings and tattoos, long hair, and peace signs. They were the typical Venice Beach hippies that terrify and amuse me. As the show progressed, and the people were revealed as a family with a problem dog, who all loved each other, and the dog... they began to seem less weird. They had the same joys, the same frustrations, and remarkably similar life goals as me, though they had chosen a very different vehicle to arrive in.
Similarly, I was feeling horribly frustrated over some of the uncontrollable stresses in my life, and quite put out because some others were not responding the way I wanted them to. Then through a series of conversations, one by one, those people revealed lives to me that were far more difficult and complicated than even mine, and filled with their own stresses. My complaints were revealed for what they were.... shallow, self-pitying, narrow focused without understanding what was happening to make the others behave as they did. I really am a humbled blockhead this morning. Praise God that His mercies are "new every morning", because I sure need a fresh supply each day.
Lamentations 3:22-24
22 Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
24 I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him."
