The Price of the Soul

I just had a little drama in my life in the past couple of days. On Monday, after running a bunch of errants, I came home and went to see a movie with a friend of mine. After that I stayed home and did not have to use my wallet till Tuesday night, when I found it was missing. Since it contained all the important things I needed, like my work permit, driver's license, credit cards, temple recommend, and so on, I was very worried.

I quickly checked my room and my car and went straight to the theater I was in. The manager was very helpful and checked the lost and found cabinet for me but did not find anything. Then he let me go back into the theater I was in to look for it myself. There was a movie going on and it was too dark, so I did not find anything. I came home and checked everything more carefully but still did not find it, so I waited till that movie was over and went to the theater again and looked in there one more time. At this point I was certain that the chance for me to get it back was quite limited. One major thing working against me was that though I never carry cash, because I don't have any, I had $175 in cash in the wallet, which was money I got from selling my books back at BYU. Since there were no suspicious charges on my cards, I was sure the cash was the reason some one would not return my wallet.

This morning I went to the BYU Lost of Found office, hoping whoever found my wallet would return it there since it had my BYU id inside, but it was a no as well. Then I checked with the international services about my working status. They told me that I had to have a work permit to work, and since I lost mine, I couldn't work, but, if I was willing to wait for another three months and pay another $180 of application fee, I would receive a replacement. Well, school starts in a month and half for me, so there was no point of getting the replacement, and that meant I would have to sit at home and pick my nose all day for the remainder of my summer, not to mention having no income. As you can imagine, I was quite disappointed at that point. After that I went to the banks and canceled all my cards, and then I decided to give the theater just one more chance. After looking in it with a flashlight this time, I still came out with nothing, and I asked the manager again whether he could check the lost and found. He decided to look in the janitor's pile from last night, which was Tuesday, and there it was, my long-lost wallet! I took it and looked, and sure enough the cash was gone. Apparently what happened was somebody found my wallet on Monday, took it, thought about what to do with it since they wanted the cash, and decided to return in and brought it back on Tuesday. This shows that this person has a quite decent heart because he/she did not throw my wallet away after taking the cash, but it still made me wonder--what is the price of our soul?

I understand not everybody believes in the same moral standards as I do, but I am pretty sure most people know what is right and what is wrong. It was very nice of whoever that took my money to return the rest of it, but at the same time, that $175 was a big enough temptation to steal, which is a crime in any country. I asked myself what I would do in a situation like that and the answer was definitely to return everything, but what if it had more cash than that? Would I change my mind? I don't know and it scares me to think further.

Maybe there is a price for everybody's soul. I just hope mine is high enough that only Christ's sacrifice can pay for it.

I'm Still Alive

Wow! I haven't been here for a while. I guess I got really busy with life. I found a place to live in Pullman, bought all my furniture (yes, nothing up there is furnished. Curses!), and saw a lot of good movies. So life is great, plus my best friend's wife just got pregnant. Crazy. I can't believe that kid is going to be a father, but I guess it's about time :-).

Anyway, I just wanted to pop in here and let y'all know I am still alive, and happy! Peace.