LETTER TO A THIEF...

"...be sure your sin will find you out." (from Numbers 32:23)

Dear Person who stole items from my automobile on Saturday, July 30:

I doubt you'll actually read this, but I write with the hope that it will make some sort of a different and positive impact for many persons who WILL read it. I worked a few hours at my Framingham telephone answering service job on Saturday. It felt great to get into my old but reliable 1995 Subaru Impreza sedan at 8 p.m. and head for home in south central Massachusetts. I happily tuned in to a favorite show of mine on Boston's NPR station.

As I drove along the MASSPIKE, something just didn't seem quite right. Some folks would call me, "sort of O.C.D." I believe in, "a place for everything and everything in its place." I KNEW I'd had my clip-on sunglasses with me. These were no cheap department store pair! They came from the optical store along with the premium pair of eyeglasses. I'd laid them in their little case on the passenger seat earlier. As I drove, I fumbled and looked for that clip-on sunglasses case. To my frustration and confusion, it was NOWHERE. That wasn't normal!

Then came a quick flash of apprehension: My devotional books- WHERE WERE THEY?! You may not understand the term "devotional books" so let me explain. First, a five year old gray canvas Bible cover with a cool logo on the front intended for a middle schooler's Bible. I bought that cheap at a Christian bookstore. Inside the canvas container, a thin hardcover journal, and a very inexpensive New King James Version Bible. In addition, various notes and papers with material written down which would only mean something to me.

You won't believe this but NO possession on earth meant more to me than that gray canvas Bible cover and its contents! True, the zipper was broken and the gray Bible cover has held together by two large rubber bands. It didn't LOOK like anything special. But if my residence were found to be on fire, that's the one item I'd have tried to carry away with me. If my residence was destroyed by a tornado, I'd be walking through the rubble looking for my devotional books. I'd gladly have preferred to part with my cell phone, or EVEN MY WALLET!

Yes, you're probably laughing and asking why the Subaru was unlocked. There's only one key to the Subaru. It's on my key ring. It's badly worn, and recently got bent. The key will barely work in the ignition. It WON'T work in any of the door locks, hence I have to leave the Subaru unlocked. I never thought anyone would want to steal my devotional books!

The past couple of years have been a season of great losses for me, including the closing of the church I pastored. This is the latest loss. Over twenty years ago, it was the Rev. David Dean, then pastor of First Baptist Church of Sudbury, who encouraged me to begin keeping a devotional journal. He'd kept and saved his devotional journals for years. David told me, "You can look back and see what you were going through and what you were feeling fiver or ten years earlier, and be reminded of the the Lord has done in your life." So I began that practice around 1989. I have all my past devotional journals saved in a file drawer at home; One for every year. In December, I plot out what my Bible readings will be for each day of the coming year. When I do my readings, I write down anything that "spoke to me" from that passage or something new I've learned from it. I also list prayer requests. In addition, I write down what the weather was for the day, and what my mood was like. Granted, there are a lot of abbreviations and very personal things written that others might not understand. But I intend that after I "pass on", those journals will be a legacy for my children and grandchildren to browse through. I want to leave that legacy that despite my faults and failures, I was a man of prayer, and a man who studied and meditated upon God's Word.

Now 2011 will be missing from that collection. It will be like the year there was no World Series! It will be sort of a hole in the devotional life of Bob Baril- like a large jigsaw puzzle missing a piece.

I know we should not let unfortunate events like that theft from my Subaru "throw" us- but I must admit that for a short time, it did. I came home very sad and thinking I just wouldn't bother keeping devotional anymore. I was angry at whoever stole my devotional books and sunglasses; I was angry with God for allowing them to be stolen; and I was angry with the devil just in case he had anything to do with it. After a big plate of pasta and cheese, and a mug of coffee, I calmed down. I reasoned I'll still read the Bible and pray each day- just no more journaling for the rest of the year. I'll start again with January 1, 2012. In place of the 2011 Devotional Journal in my files will be a copy of this written piece.

Ironically, during my thirty minute break on Saturday afternoon, I'd sat in the car and read Galatians chapter three. I "saw" something in that chapter that had never "stood out" to me before, and I wrote about that in the journal; wrapped the canvas cover with the rubber bands and laid it on the seat.

I hope you'll stop and think next time you want to "life" something from someone's car. My best advice is: DON'T! But if you INSIST upon it, please don't take something that's so sacred and irreplaceable. How do you KNOW if it's "sacred and irreplaceable"? Well, if there's any doubt about that, DON'T TAKE IT!

I'm supposed to love you and forgive you and pray for you, according to the Bible. Honestly, it's hard! Whitey Bulger may be accused of having murdered 19 people, but somehow I don't think he'd have stolen a person's devotional books off of their car's front seat. I think he'd have a little more class than that. I pray you do come to know the Lord in a personal way, that you come to repentance, and that someday you'll be keeping your own devotional journals.

Firmly,
BOB BARIL