Sharon and I went away for a few days
It was a time to slow down just a bit and think about things.
Sharon loves to walk trails.
We were walking along the top of a bluff.
I have a bad habit of wandering off the trails. I called back to Sharon "be careful the ground isn't stable here." Yea, it wasn't. I tried to catch hold of a tree as I fell. Sharon says she just remembers me spinning like a top.
No broken bones just a couple of gashes.
I did learn to hang onto trees when the footing was iffy after that.
When looking at sharon's photos, I see I was on my phone dealing with issues too much of the time. Here I had just got back up the bluff and into the parking lot and have to answer someone. Still a bit shaky and honestly feeling some shock.
On the beach the next day dealing with another issue.
Oh, look, once again answering someone.
I spent some time this trying to figure out how to righteously deal with some situations. Cain asked God "Am I my brother's keeper?" That is a question I ask myself. Cain was asking because he had killed his brother and did not want to confess.
I am asking myself that question because we have tenants who are not paying. There is always a reason why they have no money. The dog food was purchased. The dumpster is full of garbage every week but they have no money for rent. My response has been, "I am not your daddy. I can't support you." But I have been supporting them by supplying unpaid for housing.
Sharon took a picture of this waterfall. It is fake. The city pumps the water up to a high point and there you have it, a waterfall, but it is fake. I don't want to be a fake servant of Jesus and not live like he commanded. I don't want to be walking on ground that is not stable and end up falling off the cliff morally.
This stone formation is called the devils door. I want to walk with God and not walk through the devil's door of selfishness, but I would be wrong to enable tenants to buy many "things" and not pay the rent because they think "he is too nice to make us pay".
So I needed some time to walk and think. I may have a responsibility to care for the poor, but first off they need to be poor. I have been told by tenants they can not work because they got hurt. They are talking to the wrong guy there. I have nerve and muscle damage in my arms from an accident when I was a teenager. My father was deaf, my maternal grandfather was blind. My paternal greatgrandfather had a wooden leg. All of us worked and paid our bills.
So how do I treat those who owe us with love. Sometimes what is required is a hard lesson, there are priorities in life. If you have 3 bags of dog food in the house and haven't paid me, you are moving on out because the dog is more important than me. The dog may be important to them but someone else can support it, not me.
Yea I think that is justice.
If they could pay the rent when they earned $15 per hour but now can't when they earn $18 per hour (inflation is 8% and the pay raise was 20%), They are going to be moving out.
Yes, I think that is justice.
And what does God rquire of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8
I need to walk that fine line with both mercy and justice. The hebrew word for mercy is hesed, but it means mercy with justice
