We had a cattle feeding operation 15 years ago. A disease came through and financially ruined us. An auction was set up to sell the machinery and equipment. It was a sad time for me and I will always remember what the auctioneer told me, "Royce, this is not our home. We are just passing through and this is just stuff."
If you do not know, I fill in for ministers and lead church services for them if they can not be there.
Friday morning I went to a funeral of John C. He was a man who did the same thing and more. I had to park down the road because the church parking lot was full. John C was a man who had a lot of sorrow in his early life, but came to know Jesus personally. He loved God and knew Jesus was his savior. He has an eternal home with God.
Friday evening I was in Newton, giving a report on a worship service evaluation of a man who is going to be ordained as a minister in the next couple of weeks. I felt inadequate to evaluate a man who has been leading the services at this church for 10 years, but it was a privilege to be asked to do it. As he was questioned about his life and faith it was evident that he knows where his eternal home is.
Thursday I taped a "pay or quit" notice to the door of a house. It was something I had hoped I would never have to do. This tenant was picked up for a parole violation. He is in jail and although he has funds in the bank there is no one who can access the account. I have no idea how long he will be incarcerated and the water has been shut off for nonpayment by the city water department. City code stipulates if there is no water service, the house must be vacant. This man in a few days will have no home.
I took a chance on this man. He was homeless when he contacted me needing a place to stay. We have rented to homeless people several times in the past and have not regretted it. Most homeless people are not living on the streets and pushing a shopping cart filled with everything they own. Many of them are staying on a friend's couch, some are living in a motel for a week, some are living in their cars till they can find a home. What they have in common is they have no permanent dwelling they can call home.
I know this man has chronic pain and a guess on my part is some self medication with nonprescription drugs has left him in trouble with the law. I am not going to judge him for that. When I was 15 years old I was in an accident. The local hospital gave me some wonderful pain medication. Oh what wonderful pain medication. I would beg them to give me another dose before the first one had run out. (I wanted the feeling of that needle going in. Yea, that is how pathetic I was. I went form afraid of needles to begging for them to stick one in me in a matter of a couple of days.) Not because I had terrible pain but because I loved thinking I could see the world the way I had never seen it before. I thought I could see the very molecules everything was made of. Now 46 years later I can still recall the dreams with the bright visual colors and the incredible smells.
I was transferred by ambulance to Iowa City Hospital. They listened to me asking for that pain med and they said "no". The staff knew an addict when they saw one and it was a couple of tough days, tied in a bed as they drained infection from wounds and cleaned the pain meds out of my system.
So, I get opiod addiction, I really do. I wish there was a way I could help this guy, but right now it is out of my hands and when he is released he will be homeless again.
His girlfriend was living in the house, but I was told by a friend of his that she had been stealing and selling his belongings while he was locked up. I was thinking she was "high" when I talked to her and I was wondering where she was getting the drugs with no income. Now I know.
The friend packed up her stuff, set it on the deck, and took away her key. She now has no home.
We are just here for a few decades and then we will be here no more. As that auctioneer told me years ago, this is not our home. There will come a time when all of us will reach the end of our lives. I know that I will always have a home because God has a room for me in his house for eternity.
Not having a home is a terrible thing. When the time comes and you leave this life do you have a home for eternity?
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