Parking Garage

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The Parking Garage

By Brandi Bell 

We live just south of Memphis, TN and love it!  It’s so neat to be able to go downtown to take in the food, the sites, and the sounds of the city.  Our whole family enjoys it!  

One of the things you will discover about downtown Memphis, or any larger city for that matter, is that you will encounter parking garages.  You know those large, towering, concrete structures, that allow you to park your car while you are visiting or working downtown.  

The process is pretty simple.  At the entrance, there’s an attendant, either a live person or machine, waiting at a guard like station behind gate arms prohibiting your entrance. In order to gain entrance to the garage you must stop at the gate and pay.  In exchange for that payment, you receive a ticket, that you are to put inside your car, showing proof to anyone you have access to be there.  It’s a glorified permission slip. Then the attendant will lift the gate arms and you may drive in to a spot of your choosing.  

I realize this seems elementary and silly to be going into all this detail to describe the parking garage process on a blog series about being a Christ Follower, but stay with me as I bring this around.  

God uses everyday scenarios to teach me things.  The parking garage is really no exception.  God showed me that there are thoughts and then there are meditations.  Thoughts are things that you have without really any control, whereas meditations enter your mind as thoughts and then are allowed to stay while you ponder on them.  God had said "You know, Brandi, parking garages are like thoughts." 

Let me explain...You are the attendant.  A thought comes to mind like a car coming to the gate. It is just a thought until it has gained access inside.  As the attendant you control whether you lift the gate arm and grant permission for the thought to come in and become a meditation in its metaphorical parking spot. You give it a permission slip.  
Y’all, isn’t God good? I love how he speaks to me through ordinary, sometimes mundane tasks like parking garages. 

So in conclusion, we may not have much control on what we THINK, but we do have the ability to choose which thoughts we grant access in our mind and give permission to become meditations. Thoughts can be good, or they can be bad.  We have the ability to choose on which thoughts we allow to become meditations. The Apostle Paul, even confirms that we do have a choice to think on bad or good things. 

  Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:8 

I know this is NOT always easy, but will you join with me as we only allow the gate arm to be lifted on the good ones? 



Together we continually learn to follow, ~Brandi Bell 



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