Onward Christian Soldiers

I almost never talk about religion on my blog or in any of my posts. However, it's no secret that I am a Christian - albeit a very imperfect one (aren't we all). The point of this blog post is to discuss my frequent difficulty in maintaining a Christian attitude and appropriate Christian behavior when I'm dealing with - yes, you guessed it - TENANTS!

The latest tenant to move out was a perfect example of this issue. This particular tenant moved in only a few months ago. She is disabled and essentially confined to a wheelchair. During her tenancy, I bent over backwards to help her out. That included making her apartment handicapped accessable at my expense. In addition, when a relative took advantage of her and stole some of her property, I took care of the problem for her. I went above and beyond the call of duty with this tenant.

My problem arose when she suddenly decided to move out, without giving me notice. Even with this extreme lack of courtesy and violation of her lease, I still would have been ok with her if she had just left before the 1st. Unfortunately, she decided not to do that and was still occupying the property on May 1st. To make a long story short, she stayed after the 1st without paying the rent. I knocked on her door and told her that she needed to leave ASAP or I would file an eviction. She did leave, but left a BUNCH of her junk in the apartment. Furthermore, with all that stuff being in the apartment, I couldn't be sure that she was out and I had no way to contact her. I did have a phone number for her son and I called him to explain that I had bent over backwards to help her and that I didn't appreciate the way she was acting. He agreed and said that he would attempt to get someone to remove her belongings.

Sunday, I spent all morning at church running the projection, for both services. Then, later in the evening, I was back at church for our small group meeting. As I was heading home, I received a call from one of her relatives that said that he was at this apartment to move the rest of her stuff but couldn't get in. Since I really wanted her out of there, I agreed to drive down to the apartment on Sunday night to let him in. When I arrived, I found that they had driven their pickup truck right up onto the concrete front deck - I was not happy. Then, when I let them into the apartment and they saw what a disaster the apartment was, they said that they were only there to pick up her couch and a few other things. I asked them what they intended to do about the rest of her stuff and they said that was my problem. THAT WAS IT! I went ballistic and told them what a bunch of scum I thought they were! There was a lot of cursing and nasty discourse (all coming from me) and I let them know that I was VERY angry with them and the tenant! Once again, I had learned the lesson that NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED!

There you have it - that is the point of this post. I certainly didn't act much like a Christian. In fact, I find that it is VERY difficult to turn the other cheek when some scumbag steals from me - especially when tenants do this with shocking regularity. I'm sure that there are Christians that could accept this stupidity from the tenants and really shine as a Christian. Unfortunately, that is NOT me! I guess I have a lot of room for improvement!