Do
you notice anything unusual about this picture? Does anything look out of
place? What about the grill? Aren’t grills normally on your deck in the back of
the house? But this one is on the patio in the front of a condo…. my condo.
For
the past nine years our grill has been on the deck in the back until this year
when we received a notice from our condo board that there is a state law that
you can’t do that. Who would’ve thunk it? In order to comply, we moved our
grill to the front patio. Problem solved right? Wrong!
About
a month ago we received a “First Notice for Rule Enforcement” from the condo board
stating that our grill was on “common property” and therefore, according to the
By-Laws, must be removed immediately. Even though this is a confession, I won’t
share my initial, uncensored reaction when I read this notice at the end of a
long day at work.
Eventually,
after calming down and thinking rationally, I composed what I thought was a well-reasoned
and thought out letter signed by my wife and myself. It explained why we
disagreed with the board’s position and backed it up with the condo By-Laws.
That
should have been good enough for me to put this matter in the past; but it
wasn’t. My anger and resentment kept poking its ugly head up from beneath the
surface. Then this week, in preparation of writing this devotional, I read my
verses.
12 Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must
clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and
patience. 13 Make allowance for each other’s faults, and
forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must
forgive others. NLT
Darn!
There are so many times it would be much easier to not be a Christian; to not
have to follow Christ. I would much rather be angry and unforgiving. I prefer
to justify my actions because of some perceived wrong. It’s so much easier to
be angry because people don’t live up to my expectations. Then came the dagger.
17 And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the
Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father. NLT
It’s
confession time. Do you feel convicted after reading these verses? I do. As a
result, although I’m not sure what we will do about our grill, I most certainly
need to change my attitude and to represent the Lord well.
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