True confession.

I've been feeling the blogging itch again and since I am sitting here avoiding work I decided it was time for a true confession post.  This one is a little embarrassing but I promise there is a lesson to be gleaned.

This story takes place during my Graduate school years (ie. I was old enough to know better).  A few years prior my sister had an "I love Jesus" air freshener hanging from her rear view mirror in her car.  It was a funny rainbow colored thing and we thought it was funny/cool.  We had a funny little fascination with various items of "I love Jesus" pop culture.

Fast forward to when I was a Teaching Assistant as a Grad student.  It was a winter morning when I noticed a black knit hat laying on the floor under a desk after class.  I went to pick it up and discovered it had a patch on the front.  An "I [heart] Jesus" patch.  It was too good to be true.  I had visions of wearing the hat, the conversations it might spark, and all the cool kids I might attract with it.  The hat would scream, "That's right, I said it, and I'm cool." 

I grabbed the hat and stuffed it in my backpack.  The only problem was-- I had a pretty good idea of who the hat belonged to.  I tried to shrug off the guilt and finished my day.  I saw the hat's owner a few times on campus that day, which only compounded my guilt.  When I got home I realized that my backpack had been totally open with the hat stuffed in clear sight.  Had the owner seen it?  Most likely.

A week goes by and I'm afraid to wear the hat.  The irony that I had stolen an "I love Jesus" hat was not lost on me.  In class I hear the owner complain to a friend that someone stole their hat and why would anyone want an "I love Jesus" hat anyway? I convince myself the owner says this knowing I was the dummy who took the hat.

The more embarrassing part?  When I brought the hat back to the classroom and just left it there for the owner to find.  Why didn't I just make up a lie about how I found it after class and was intending to return it?  Because once you steal something you can't think straight.

The moral?  If you truly love Jesus, you don't have to steal to prove it.