Maintenance underway

"Why me?"

That's usually the first reaction when something undesirable happens. I initially had "bad" instead of "undesirable", but in hindsight they were only bad because they were things that weren't according to your plans or expectations. This sounds vaguely familiar...it could possibly be an extension of the previous entry.

While cleaning up our Russell Road abode to move to Wellington, we...let's say "took some shortcuts" in the cleanup. At the time I had an uneasy feeling and I knew without a doubt that it wasn't the right thing to do. So our landlord was dishonest in his dealings with us and our the real estate agent was harsh. That somehow justified in my mind what some call "karma", coming back to bite them in the proverbial. But as it turned out, things didn't quite go to plan, and let's just say that we had to undo what we did, and it may have cost us an outstanding reference from the agents.

Then tonight, I get these letters... "Infringement Notice" is the policitally correct and official term for them. I feel hard done by. Surely the police have better things to do than send me speeding tickets, I mean come on, I was only 6k's over the speed limit. Didn't get they get a really terrible independent review of some sort recently? I don't know. But it must be their fault, not mine. Right...?

Why me? I'm a (generally) good and (mostly) law abiding person. After the initial shock, anger and frustration, the answer that always comes back to me is this: (and yes, answers do come back in bullet points) 

• There is no authority except that which God has established
• Most of the time, I know what is right, and follow it
• Sometimes, I know what is right, and do not follow it
• God provides a way to show/remind me what is right where I may have been in the dark
• God provides a way to discipline me for disobeying what I had known all along to be right
• An opportunity is presented to overcome a weakness or develop a strength and continue to grow in the same likeness as the Lord, to go from glory to glory

"But I'm a good person!"

Yes, and I can be an even better person. And better still.

Will

Over the past week or so, I have once again been reminded of this verse:

⁸ “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
   neither are your ways my ways,”
            declares the LORD.
⁹ “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
   so are my ways higher than your ways
   and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Isaiah 55

During the whole preparation to move to Wellington, my prayer has been "LORD, let your will be done".

Then I found myself looking for rental accommodation, and before I knew it the prayer had turned to "LORD, let your will be done and not mine [and I really hope your will is for us to get this house on So-and-so Street that we just put in an application for]". What a rude awakening when our application got denied, and now it's back to knee-time, repentance, and reaffirmation that His will be done, that His ways are higher.

And as a friend cheekily put it, it's now up to those new tenants to sort out the plumbing issues...

Play that funky music

Anyone tried making playlists for a 3.5 hour road trip where everyone has different taste in music? It's no easy feat, that's for sure.

Which is why I'm awake at 11:42pm worrying about what to play in the car to suit the different times of the day, different energy levels, weather, etc etc. It doesn't seem like a big deal. Just get some sleep, and don't worry about it, surely you can do fine without music for only 3 hours, right? I usually find that if it's there, it's not a major "wow you have music!" type of thing, but when there is no music and you start fiddling with the radio trying to find music and not getting any reception because you're in the middle of nowhere, the "I KNEW I should have made those CDs" feeling hits.

I can't find any more Samoan songs, and the ones I've found are named Unknown [x] by Artist [abc def]. This will be interesting. Hopefully, more of the "aww, interesting!" type and not the "umm...yea...INteresting" type.

Late night OTL babbling FTL!