"That Key Lookin' Thing"

"Mercy Triumps Over Judgement...Those who show mercy are shown mercy..."

Those words set to soothing tunes and the melodic voice of Julie True set the atmosphere, for a unique reaction to what I call - mini shock.

I'm working. I decide that I need to venture to the ladies room. I'm talking with my dad on my cell as I return to my desk. The hues once softly dimmed is loud and flourescent. My bags are raised from the floor and sitting on my chair and my desk (I carry lots of bags). As I try to say bye to Pop, I see my flash drive in pieces on the corner of my desk. I don't know how to react in that moment. I'm trying to wrap up the conversation, as I try to figure out what could have happened in the 10 minutes I've been gone. Did I do that? No, I wasn't here. What happened? There's 3 years of my life on that thing, what happened!!!

Someone comes in to break the news. "Something got caught in George's machine as he tried to vacuum your office. I heard this loud clackety, clack noise that wouldn't stop. He took a long time to turn off the machine. He wanted me to tell you that he got that "key looking thing out, for you. He said he didn't think it was that important." Revealing the true identity of that key drew collective gasps, mixed with raised eyebrows, occasional disbelief and sympathy.

That flash drive was like my memory, but when I was asked of the contents, I didn't dare go there. "I don't even want to tell you what was on it." I knew it would make me anxious, worried and angry. The lanyard attached to the flash drive, was sucked into the vaccuum and the "key" obediently followed venturing into the realm of the unknown, to the untimely fate of disintegeration. Alas, its remains lie in a ziploc baggy awaiting possible surgery.

So the neat and unexpected thing in all this? I could have been really mad at George. In that moment all I could do was laugh. He clearly didn't know what a flash drive was, or its value. I'm sure I could tell him in the future, but I'm just eager to move on. What? No whining? No bemoaning? It felt so good to extend this mercy. As soon as I decided to move on, I did. The enemy wanted anger, but that incident didn't steal my joy. I so need God's mercy, I just kept hearing that song playing in my head, and my spirit grabbed hold of it. It was my opportunity to put what I received to the test. It wasn't as a painful as my flesh wanted it to be. The great news in this trajedy? - you can come eat off my office floor - its that clean!