Belonging

Okay people. I know that what you’re about to read is in no way Kingdom-altering. I know that it’s also probably worthy of an eyeroll. 

But.

This is my blog so we’re gonna talk about it anyway and if you want to roll your eyes, you go right ahead. Just turn your head a little, please, so I don’t see.

Our station is located on a former college campus, so we have multiple parking lots and a small grouping of other buildings around us that house a variety of other businesses and ministries. 

Last week, the building right next to ours got some new tenants, and with that change…came changes to the parking lot. New spaces for everyone!

And by that, I mean…

…my previously self-assigned parking spot will very soon have an official sign up declaring it to belong to someone else I work with. My little Bekah-mobile has now been relegated to an entirely different lot…one farther away that requires I actually leave home earlier to have time for my walking commute at the end of my driving commute. {It’s not THAT much farther…but enough.}

My co-workers have issued some {deserved} good-natured ribbing to me about the way in which my universe is altered when I have to change my parking place.

It’s just a parking place…they say. 

I understand that. But I also understand that I’m a girl of routine. I like things to follow an order. And that includes the parking lot. 

It’s not just for work. It’s something I do everywhere I shop…at church…when I visit my parents’ house {yes, I’ve designated a space in the driveway as mine}…and frankly I like it that way.

And yes. I also like to sit in the same pew at church, the same chair in the conference room, and perhaps even the same table at restaurants.

Call it a matter of OCD if you will, and it probably is…but in my heart it really feels more like a matter of belonging. I love going to work and finding my little spot empty and ready to welcome my car. I spend a lot of hours at that place. It’s a second home. And I like to belong there – not just at my desk, but in the parking lot too. And when someone parks in my space, it doesn’t make me upset because I think I own the spot. It just feels like…someone didn’t stop to notice that this is my little car’s home. This is where it belongs.

That’s the reason I won’t park in everyone else’s regular spots when they’re on vacation. Seeing the empty spot and reserving it as theirs makes me aware that they’re missing…and that the day isn’t quite the same without them.

Anyone else have a “belonging spot?” {OCD person’s code for self-assigned parking place.}