I Love It When

And so begins a new series of posts I’ll be sharing called “I Love It When.” Inspired by this blog, I wanted to begin an itemized list of things that I love. Most importantly though, I want to give thanks where thanks is due–God. So, here it goes.

I love it when someone illegally copies my debit card to buy over $500 worth of gasoline in six days.

No, that’s not sarcasm. And yes, you read it right. As some of you may have heard, last night I was checking my online banking statement (which I rarely do) in order to retrieve my account number to pay a bill. To my surprise, there was significantly less money than I expected there to be. I don’t know how many of you have experienced something like this—but I would be lying if I didn’t say that my immediate reaction was to panic. I could feel the blood pumping extra hard, extra fast through my heart and I stood up immediately, my thoughts going a gazillion miles an hour. I racked my brain–no, I didn’t lend anyone my card. I didn’t leave it anywhere. It’s in my wallet for goodness sake!

After a few deep breaths and talking myself down from the proverbial tree, I began to see a little more clearly. I figured out how many charges were fraudulent, so that I could clearly explain what happened to the fraud specialist. I prayed when I was on hold with Chase’s fraud department. I asked God to give me the strength, wisdom and maturity to handle the situation. I was cool, calm and collected, as they say. I was going to be an adult about this. Hey, I’m twenty years old now. No more teenage tears to cry…right??

As soon as I heard the fraud specialist’s friendly, “How can I help you?” I immediately burst into tears. I might as well have been six years old again. Thankfully, she was very kind and reassuring, informing me that I most likely ran my card through a skimming device while trying to pay for something. Unbeknownst to me, the machine copied my card to be used by a thief later on. With my card closed and no more fraudulent charges to fear, I began to take account (no pun intended) of what had just occurred. I decided it was time God and I had a little chit chat.

And then I realized that as angry and as hurt and as violated as I felt by that stranger (probably a taxi driver, as far as I’ve figured based on the timing and the fact that all the purchases were for gasoline)–I still have so much to be thankful for. All the money I lost is being refunded to my account by Chase–by the way, their fraud services are amazingly helpful so if you bank through them and this happens to you, do not fret.

More importantly though, I realized that God didn’t let that happen to me to make my life a hassle. He didn’t do that to prevent me from studying for one of the 4 exams I have before next Thursday. And he didn’t do it to make me angry. He did it to quell my fears–fears that I can’t take care of myself, fears that I am too immature, fears that when the chips are down, I’ll just fold. I realized–for the first time–that I CAN take care of myself. I didn’t call my mom first, or my dad first, or my boyfriend first, or any of my friends. I just called the bank, prayed, handled it. And you know what? I’m going to be ok.

I love it when God is faithful, because you know what? He promised.