The 2006 Great Parking Experiment

So, the company that I work at has a large parking lot that wraps around the building. Next to the front of the building, there are approximately 10 parking spaces marked "Visitor Parking Only", as well as the requisite battery of handicapped spaces. We are surrounded by elevated railroad tracks on 2 sides, a privately-owned cornfield on a 3rd side, and the street on the 4th side. So, we're pretty limited as far as parking expansion goes. Management has recently rectified this situation by leasing a remote parking lot down the street, with a shuttle bus that take people from the parking lot to the building. So, why did I just describe all this? Because that is the setting of the 2006 Great Parking Experiment.

A girl that I work with (we'll call her "Jane") moved here from California last November. And, for months now, I have seen her consistently parking illegally in the visitors parking spaces. When she does, she purposefully removes the company parking permit from her rearview mirror, and her California license plates definitely help in the deception. I was quite surprised that our security guards hadn't noticed this yet. Well, I'm by no means a tattletale, and on a practical level, I couldn't care less. But, some inner sense of justice within me just wouldn't let this go. So, I told "Jane" that I was starting an experiment. Every day that she parked illegally, I would too. And we would see who got caught first. My hypothesis was that, since "Jane" is a tall, attractive blonde, perhaps her offense was being overlooked by the predominantly male security staff. OK, my main purpose was to find a funny, non-threatening way to get her to stop parking illegally.

Well, it all came crashing down on Wednesday of this week, when both Jane and I were contacted by security staff to move our cars. I smiled when I got the news, and cheerily moved my car to the back, mission accomplished. However, Jane was quite ticked off, and called me into her office to talk about it. At first, I thought she was mad at me. It turned out that she was mad at a co-worker (we'll call her "Sally"), who had apparently ratted us both out to the security federales. She was so mad that Sally had gone behind our backs and told security about our 'illegal' activities.

"I can't believe Sally did that! She's such a b****!" Jane said.

"Well, we were in the wrong, weren't we?" I reasoned.

"That's not the point!" said Jane. "She should have talked to us in person instead of getting us in trouble. I mean, it's none of her f***ing business."

"But, it doesn't change the fact that we were in the wrong, does it?" I asked.

"Yes, we were wrong. But that's not the point!!" she replied.

This whole experience has helped me to realize something about people in general. We all screw up, sometimes unintentionally and sometimes very much on purpose. And more often than not, when our crimes are exposed, rather than confess and beg for mercy, we try to make excuses and justify our behavior. Jane apparently thought that whining about the way her wrongdoing was exposed might mitigate or deflect from the fact that she was wrong all along. I wonder, how many people will be doing that with God when the final judgment comes? Will we be saying that it's unfair the way God revealed our sins to the entire world? Will we try to justify and point fingers? How much mercy should we expect from a holy God for that kind of behavior?

I would much rather live a life of continual confession and repentance, submitted to God's will and receiving his mercy and cleansing every day. As for the blame for my sin, the only place I can point to is towards myself. And for mercy and forgiveness, the only place I can point to is the cross of Christ.