BitterSweetLife

Last night Lindsay and I went to the Kansas City Shakespeare Festival, sans kids, and saw one of the bard's great depressing plays, Othello. I've been thinking that one of these days I need to compile a Top Ten Summer Attractions in KC list--the Shakespeare Festival would definitely make it...

Anyway, we arrived at the park pretty late, and managed to get decent seats only because of the kindness of some folks who let us sandwich our collapsible chair right between them (the concept of personal space evaporates at these events). As we were sitting there eating, drinking, and making merry, people were still streaming by looking for seats. About five feet away on our right, a couple in their 40s were kicked back in lawn chairs. A gaggle of teenagers came over and started putting their blanket down in a patch of turf in front of them--but the man, who apparently wanted about eight feet to stretch his legs, made a rude comment: a pompous, condescending, "Do you mind?" type statement.

Several people sitting around us noticed, and looked up to see the teenagers straggle away with bewildered looks on their faces. The dude who had sent them packing leaned back, stuck out his gut, and extended his legs as far into the open area as he could, with a smug expression on his face. Lindsay was so indignant she was still muttering five minutes later.

I was ticked off too. I mean, you come to a park for "free Shakespeare," knowing it will be a communal experience, and then as soon as you arrive, you have the audacity to act like you own a large patch of real estate? (All kinds of parallels about grace and arrogance and the church are begging to be made here, but...)

So after fuming out loud for a little while, I prayed, "God, would you send a couple people with chairs--not a blanket, chairs, preferably tall chairs--to sit directly in front of that dude?" I mean, God is concerned about justice everywhere, even at a Shakespeare Festival in Kansas City. Right?

Of course right. So I'm typing this to tell you that about ten minutes later, as I glanced to our right, my face absolutely lit up when I saw two people in tall chairs sitting directly in front of our real estate tycoon. Apparently he hadn't been able to protect his little plot of land after all. Ha ha ha.

I can't say this happens all the time, but when you see someone get justice handed to them in a way that's fitting and immediate--in a way that makes you laugh out loud, like we did yesterday--it does serve notice that final and ultimate justice will not be evaded. God gives us a ton of freedom, and we can personalize that freedom with our own petty preferences and selfish obsessions, or we can bank on the grace of Jesus and use our freedom for others.

On the 4th of July weekend, here's hoping we learn to use our freedom in ways that will earn God's happy endorsement.