I was robbed. Long story short, I have a wristlet instead of a bag because I’m super picky and haven’t found one I like yet. So I’m standing on the street about to get into a taxi with my groceries and wristlet (with the strap actually around my wrist) and some guy comes up from behind, rips it out of my hand, causing me to spin around, scream, and swat at him simultaneously. He takes off running, I start freaking out and shaking, and the girls with me stand around looking dumbfounded. So, I no longer have my passport, yellow fever vaccination card, iPhone, credit cards, cash, license, or my Starbucks gift card and cash that I literally had just received in Christmas cards from my family 4 hours before. Don’t ask why I had all of that in my wallet. I’ll just chop it up to a massive mistake and major lapse of judgment.
“oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh”
“he literally ripped it out of my hand”
“oh my gosh”
“nothing. I have nothing.”
Those are about the only words I said for the next 15 minutes.
When I went to the police station, I had to list everything that was stolen and it’s value.
- Iphone….$500 (off contract)
- Lifeproof case…about $70
- Passport…$140
- $75 in cash
- $20 Starbucks gift card
- Yellow fever vaccination card (the vaccination is about $190)
- Drivers license…I honestly have no idea how much that costs
- 3 credit cards…my entire savings and checking accounts put together. Thankfully he wasn’t smart enough to go to an ATM before I cancelled them.
- Philippians 1:9-11 written on a piece of paper from my teammate…sentimental value. (Let’s hope the guy who sold my stuff to buy drugs at least saw that and understood what it says.)
As I sat there listing everything, I started to get more pissed off and more sad at the same time. I have not job right now. I’m living off of savings. I have 8 more months of doing nothing but spend more money. I don’t know what I’m going to do after the Race.
We have a 20 hour layover in DC on January 6th and my mom is meeting me to bring me replacements of everything. I’m surrounded by 40 people who have offered to lend me money or just flat out buy me things. I have more money in my savings account than most of the world does. I wasn’t hurt. None of the people I was with were hurt or got their stuff stolen as well. And, as cheesy as this may sound…Jesus. Oh, sweet Jesus. I have Him.
One of my teammates had her entire daypack stolen earlier in the Race. Ipad, Bible, Journals, Money, etc. Gone. Another one of my teammates had her childhood home burn to the ground this past winter. Possessions, memories. Gone. Most people in the world live off of less than what I’m carrying with me for a year.
And here I was with a measly few things stolen and I was freaking out. Reality check.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m blessed. We are so blessed. What we’ve been given, how we live…we’re spoiled beyond belief. And we find ourselves complaining about the smallest things. We complain about what we don’t have. What we wish we had. What we don’t get to do. What we have to do. That 1 hour bus ride to our ministry site? Awful. Oh please, give me break. It’s stupid. All of it. It’s so stupid.
We get one life and we waste it. We waste it on complaining. On wishing we had more. On having a bad attitude. On #firstworldproblems. We’ve been been given a beautiful, wonderful, exciting life. Don’t waste it. We’ve been created for so much more.
