A tale of parking lot woe

Whether or not you agree with him, Rob Bell’s new book Love Wins has resulted in an incredible flood of publicity for him. I could use a little publicity myself so I have decided to add some controversy to my own blog.

I found myself in a highly volatile situation recently. The complexities of the ethical dillemma I faced are astounding. As I share with you my story of parking lot woe, there is no doubt that a firestorm of controversy will erupt leaving the blogosphere restless for days and weeks to come.

Let me give you the challenging scenario. My sons have decided they want to become boy scouts. With this new adventure I am certain that we will build memories that will last us a lifetime. No doubt they learn valuable lessons about service to others and doing boy scout-ish good deeds. There is just one problem. Boy scouts go camping.

I have very little experience in camping. Nor have I invested in the necessary equipment to survive a night or two in the woods. Our first camping trip is coming up this Friday, so off we went to the sporting goods store last night in order to purchase all the swiss army knives we could find.

Once we made it back to the car, my wife realized that we had in fact stolen something. Having four children we require all sorts of kid paraphernalia to survive a trip to the mall. Hidden in the bottom of the stroller between diapers, a jacket that our incredibly heat sensitive son won’t wear, and a half eaten egg roll was an air mattress pump.

Realizing our folly, we decided to get all of the children in the car first and then as I sat waiting my wife would go back into the store to purchase the stolen pump.

Here is the dilemma. In the middle of this process, I noticed that a car pulled up just behind us and stopped, turning on its blinker to indicate that they desired the parking spot we would seemingly vacate within a moment.

Knowing that you were not ready to leave, what would you do?

photo by Margan Zajdowicz (stock.xchng.com)

As I pondered my situation, possible scenarios floated through my brain.

After loading everything in the car I could simply wave them on using the universal signal for “this car isn’t leaving any time soon.”

I could get in the car and go find a different place for myself and let them have the coveted parking spot I held, alleviating the need for any confrontation between the two of us.

Another option would be to tell them that I would be leaving soon, but that it might take a few minutes. I could start a conversation with them that could eventually lead me to talking about where they go to church or if they believed in Jesus. Sensing their frustration, I might offer to pray with them, particularly for patience as we all waited for my wife to make restitution for a stolen air mattress pump. Lastly I could offer them a gospel track that has been sitting in my glove compartment unused for the last ten years.

Or I could just get in the car and pretend like the person was not there and wait for them to eventually give up and move on.

I chose to ignore him. I chose to be the guy that gets in his car but does not leave.

What would you have done?