Have you ever had someone tell you something that you did not think you needed to hear?
This past Wednesday morning, I was at the airport returning a rental car, and as I stepped to the counter and handed the agent my paperwork, he asked, “Did you get everything out of the car?” I had checked over the vehicle carefully and I thought I had gotten everything out of the car, so I answered, “I believe so.” “Are you sure?” he responded. I told him that I thought I had gotten everything out of the car except for a small box that could be thrown away. “You need to be sure you got everything,” he said. He had a peculiar smile as he spoke, and he was unusually emphatic and persuasive considering the early morning hour. He was looking at me as if to say, “If you leave anything in that car, you will be sorry.” He told me at least one more time—maybe two more times—before I walked away, that I needed to be sure that I got everything out of the car. The whole time I was thinking, “I know I got everything out of the car. I checked it several times. What does he want me to do, go back and look again? He doesn’t need to tell me this.”
When I finally walked into my house after a long flight and began unpacking my suitcase, I realized that I had left my camera in the rental car. I went back through every compartment of suitcase and my computer bag, but to no avail. I then began to make phone calls to the rental car agency to see if the camera was found in the vehicle. After dozens of calls, I still have been unable to reach anyone who actually works in the location where I dropped the car off. I was given a number that is supposed to be the direct line to that location, but no one has answered the phone there at any hour of the day or night. The phone just rings.
Obviously, I would love to get my camera back. However, there seems to be little hope of that at this point. I have this nagging feeling that I am learning what the agent knew all along. This agency rents cars, but they are not very concerned about the disposition of their customers’ stuff.
There is a lesson for all of us in this story, especially for me. I was warned! The agent told me at least three times, maybe more, “Be sure you have all of your things.” How many times have we disregarded instruction and had to suffer the consequences? “He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy” (Proverbs 29:1). If that rental return agent were standing here with me right now, I think he would have every right to say, “I told you so!”
I lost an expensive camera, a gift from my sons, because I failed to heed the warnings that were given to me. However, with the warnings that we have in scripture, there are many, much more valuable things that we could lose if we do not recognize that God’s Word is always right, and that we must always obey.
