Who fixes it?

I know none of us sees ourselves as others see us. Most of us think we are doing OK and have everything under control.

One of our rental house looks clean and neat from the street.  I walked around behind the garage and was appalled. They were storing their garbage in a huge pile. It had overflowed on neighboring property. This is when I do what I call shake the tree. 

I went up to the house and pounded on the door. The door swung open on its own.The lock was broken out. I asked the young man who came to the door what happened to the lock. I might have used what I will call my firm voice. He asked "are you the landlord?" "Yes, what happened to the lock?". "Someone kicked the door in." 

"You were going to tell us when? How are you keeping the door closed to keep out the cold?"

"We put a bag of dog food against it?"

See, here I thought there was a problem but they had solved it. Just lean a bag of dog food against the door. Now how that worked when they left the house is a bit of a puzzler isn't it?

I told him we would have someone there in the morning to fix the door and asked about all the garbage in the back yard.

" Oh as soon as my sister has a day off work we are going to haul it away."

My response was a little more direct. "It will be gone this week!"

It was one of those weeks where we find a lot of "mistakes" made by others. One of the lights and an outlet in a house we just purchased didn't work. Whoever did this wiring should never, never ever wire anything never, ever again. Was I redundant enough to make my point? He, she, or it has no clue how to run a switch leg to a light. No idea of electrical code, and I am not sure why this didn't spark and burn.

And then we had the tenants who moved out still oweing January rent. Glad they are gone, but they really shouldn't have turned the furnace off when they left. We didn't find out they moved out until we received notice from MidAmerican Energy that the service was going into our name. Funny, but did you know when it is 5 degrees outside and you turn off the furnace the pipes freeze? Another case of we found someone had kicked in the door when we went to check out why the current was going into our name, (remember how I shake "shake the tree") we didn't need a key to get into the house. 

Still trying to figure out how this spiraled down the drain. They had stapled blankets and even T shirts over all the windows.

Must have made the house pretty dark. We are still pondering why they had taped cardboard over the furnace registers. Makes it kind of hard to get heat if you close off the heat source and the cold air returns. If they thought they were solving a problem, they were going about it all wrong. 

It looks like they were trying to help keep the house warm by putting plastic and cloth over all the windows and then stopping the flow of heat from the furnace. Now that is what I call self defeating. 

That is a lot like trying to earn our way into heaven. On our own we just do everything wrong. No one is ever going to be good enough to earn Heaven and all our efforts work against each other.

I am sure the tenants with the mountain of trash never intended to fill the back yard with garbage. It just started with a bag or 2 and kept adding up.

It's a lot like our lives. We think we know what is right and if it is a little wrong we will clean it up later. God has a different approach. He wants it cleaned up now. He has sent Jesus to pay for our sins but we have to admit we have sinned and we need a savior.

If you think being a good person will get you into heaven you are like the person who wired the light switch. No clue. Only admitting your are helpless and asking Jesus to save you gets you into heaven.

We are in the process of buying a house. We do not have possession yet but the owner has told us we can fix the door. The door on the house is broken and will not lock. It is an odd sized door with a metal frame set in concrete. That means the door either had to be custom ordered or we had to build it. The new door is built and ready to be installed. Once in it will keep the elements out and be a nice point of access.

Jessu says "I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me."

Jesus is knocking, He wants everyone to spend eternity with him. That is more important than any other trials or problems you might have right now. Open the door and let Jesus make you right with God.