BYOBs: Bring Your Own Bus stop

Don't you just wish sometimes that city buses could cater to your schedule? That they could be like a taxi, but just a whole lot cheaper. And then wherever you need a ride, whenever, you can set out your own personal bus stop on the side of the road and a bus will come running. Like the bus thing on the third Harry Potter...he just sits at the side of the road and a bus comes speeding to him. Unlike the movie, I am willing to pay the bus fare, it doesn't have to be free, I just wish it was more convenient.

This came up the other day. I had to go shopping for my sister's birthday which was yesterday (Happy Birthday Cath ;)) and I had no car to take, so my only options was walking for a long time or taking the bus. I opted for the bus. Now the bus to my area is not very reliable. It often drives past me because it gets too full and it only come every hour. It is also nice however, that it takes me straight to Guildford mall almost as fast as driving.
So...I go to Guildford, pick something up from the Body Shop (yay for sales!!) and then I decide to take the 320 bus to Surrey Central so I can go to some of the stores in a little strip-mall called "The Dell" in lovely downtown Whalley. This is about a 5-10 minute walk from Surrey Central, probably closer to 5...and then another 5 minutes or so to walk to the bus stop that takes me to my house. I look at my watch and see that I have an hour, so i figure it will be about 20 minutes walking so i can get to the bus stop a few minutes early. That leaves me 40 minutes to shop. Now, if you have ever been to the Dell, you will know as well as I do that 40 minutes is too long..it feels more like 4 hours. I was out of there in about 15 minutes. Then I walked to the bus stop only to look at my watch and see that the bus didn't come for another 25 minutes. I can walk home from there in 25 minutes so grumpily i walked home thinking about having a bus just stop for me nicely on the side of the road so i can use my free transit pass for the trip home.

Sometimes I wish life could be more convenient like that as well. As much as I grudgingly walked home from Surrey Central Station, I felt good when I got home for the nice excercise. It wasn't raining, not that cold either, but I didnt take the time to enjoy it because I felt so inconvenienced. I think we need to look at our lives the same way. Just because things dont go as planned, and everything seems to be going wrong, we need to realize that it is not these events that are inconveniencing us from doing what we really want to, but that these events came up for a reason. It is God telling us that He, not I, the He is in control. He wants us to slow down and appreciate the wonders around us, and then all those stickysituations and time when we are so frustrated will just seem wierd. I mean, who ever comes up with an idea like a personal bus stop anyways?

Update: A friend from work asked me to pray for her friends father and to ask others to pray as well. Her friends dad had a brain infection and was given 48 hours to live. Well, that was 4 days ago, and after many prayers spoken I was talking to her yesterday and, miracle of miracles, he is recovering. He now responds to people talking by turning his head and opens his eyes, although his vision is quite blurred. And he's been moving his fingers too. So please just keep praying he will make a full recovery.

Thats all for this pretty long post....till next time

boersma out