My Generous Friend

I have a really good friend named Jeshua, who lives above me in my humble apartment building here in Rome. I knew he was a business owner, but I was surprised when neighbors told me he owns a sprawling coastal villa overlooking the Mediterranean.

“Why don’t you live there?” I asked him one day. “That’s got to be a lot better than this old building.”

“Oh, it’s a long story,” he said with a sigh. Though he was obviously heartsick, he eventually told me about it, bit by bit.

As it turns out, Jeshua had a dear friend who lost his job and his home when the economy took a dive. He’d known him since childhood and loved him like a brother. The man had five kids and it looked like they would end up on the streets. At the same time, my friend’s business needed him in the city, so he decided, "Why not let them stay at the villa and enjoy it in my absence? Besides, they really needed help,” he said apologetically.

Understanding that this family was desperately scraping to get by, Jeshua felt extra generous and decided not to charge rent “until they could get on their feet.” He paid the utilities, arranged to have the bills sent to his office, and told them they could even help themselves to the game room and the pool in the backyard, which he had cleaned and treated for them. "Those kids were jumping for joy at their good fortune. They never had it so good," he chuckled.

Weeks rolled into months and the father still had no work, so my friend never asked them for a dime. The tenants lived in a sprawling estate completely at his expense, responsible only to clean and put out the garbage. “I just assumed they would take care of the place,” he said.

Instead, they got lazy and the kids got out of control. They trashed the game room and broke equipment. Floors and bathrooms got filthy, furniture was scratched, and trash piled up in the garage, not even taken to the gate for pick up as he requested. Rodents and roaches came into the house, infesting everything.

The unemployed father started drinking heavily and the mother became chronically depressed. The kids acted out, decorations were broken, upholstery ruined and Persian rugs were stained with spills. "But that's not the worst part," he said, preparing me.

"One night the teenagers got into the liquor cabinet and had a pool party. The parents weren’t even aware of it since they were watching movies in the theater room in a detached stupor."

"A beautiful thirteen year-old girl was brutally raped in the garden area while loud music played. And that's not all... Another girl at the party fell into the deep end of the pool, and couldn’t swim. By the time someone realized what had happened out there in the dark, it was too late."


"Two kids pulled the girl out of the water but she was already turning blue by the time one of them called 911 in a panic." Jeshua's voice cracked and his eyes filled with tears. "She could not be revived," he said sadly. 

"When paramedics and police arrived they began inquiries about who owned the home. Then, through some quirky old legalities, I was implicated. Though I wasn’t even home when all this occurred, I was found legally responsible."

"They rushed to arrest me and take me into custody facing rape and murder charges of minors on my property, not to mention thousands of dollars in damages and legal fees."

When he read the reports and saw photos of the property, Jeshua couldn’t believe how they had taken advantage of his kindness and let things get so far out of control. “What really hurt,” he said, “was the betrayal of my own friend.”

Once again, Jeshua had to pay for everything. Not only did he have to settle the charges and cover all the damages and legal costs out of his own pocket, but he had to serve time in custody while that whole family went scot free!

 "It isn’t fair!" I was outraged. The extraordinary generosity of my friend was totally abused. He bent over backwards in their hour of need, but then he was blamed when things went wrong. Once the lawyers and insurance companies latched onto the fact that the homeowner was a wealthy businessman, they went after him and his company with a vengeance for the drowned victim and the raped girl whose parents wanted huge sums.

“It cost millions,” he whispered, “but you know what hurt most?"  Unable to imagine how I would deal with prison under such circumstances, I merely shrugged in disbelief at all I was hearing from my gentle friend. "My old friend never visited me in prison, never lifted a finger to clean up the house, and never even thanked me.” Then I almost dropped my teeth when he said, "And they’re still living in my house to this day!"

“Are you kidding me? How much longer are you going to put up with it? If it were me I’d march right over there and kick them all out on their ungrateful butts! I probably would have done it a long time ago!... How can you stand it any longer?" 

“Ah well, I’ve had enough to worry about. Besides, where would they go? And what about those children? What would happen to them?" His eyes looked off to the horizon as though remembering childhood while I stared at him in amazement.

"Do you still care? Do you actually care about them more than yourself? More than what it's cost you?"

"Don't worry," he smiled, "my plan is to finish up my business here in the city and then go back and put my house in order. I will claim what's rightfully mine and deal with those ungrateful violators of my grace in the proper time. He took a sip of wine and his eyes got misty as he added, “but I’m really not looking forward to it very much. I keep thinking about those kids...”

*******

My good friend in this parable is Jesus. The jobless homeless thankless friends he loves so much are you and me, common self-centered sinners who take, take, take, and then blame God whenever we get into trouble. We accuse and rant, “Why did GOD let this happen?”

When will we recognize that it is our laziness, our ingratitude, our drunken stupor, our lust, greed, violence, mindlessness and stupidity that creates so much pain in the world? We are blind to the One whose generosity and giving heart covers all our costs and suffered the damages. He paid the price for us, and has sworn to return from his heavenly city to put his house in order.

Someday he will make everything right, but He's waiting for all the children in the house.
Is that you? I hope you understand that the Father's loving compassionate heart wants only what's good, what's best, to take us home and love us forever. He is only willing to wait because of his great love.
 

“But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise... He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief… 

...in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness…

Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation…”

2 Peter 3:8-15

 

America in Crisis

Since there have been attempted burglaries in my Rome aparment building lately, I left a few lights on and the TV turned on to MSNBC Italian news Sunday morning. When I got back late that night, I walked in and was surprised to hear live broadcasters on the scene covering Hurricane Irene from the States, in English!

Three times in three weeks I've seen news about America in crisis. Yet, watching the maps and hearing these headlines in my mother tongue so far from home, I was also strangely removed, as though watching a movie about end times. I stood stunned watching the footage and hearing such terrible headlines as these: 

• Irene threatens 65 million people along the US east coast - THE LARGEST NUMBER OF AMERICANS EVER AFFECTED BY A SINGLE STORM.
• 22 states affected by Hurricane Irene, more than any other single storm EVER
• President Obama declared a state of emergency for 11 states and Puerto Rico
• 12” of rain dumped in New Jersey, serious flooding in many areas
• Vermont sees worst flooding in 100 years
• 40 lives lost as stories of rescue and clean up crews continue, half from electrocution
• 4 million without power, many downed trees, power lines and $40 billion destruction to property

Wow, all this on the heels of the first earthquake that rocked the whole East Coast just days ago, and the economic crisis before that. At first, it seemed many international headlines focused on Obama's golf game on Martha's Vineyard, but I'm sure for many of us, this was the first time we realized that a 'little' 5.8 on the rector scale can shake half the nation because it sits on one geological plate.

When the earthquake hit near DC, my friend Walter was teaching a Bible study up in MCI Concord prison in Massachusetts. He wrote: 

"So there I was preaching down underground in the Prison Chapel today. There were probably 60 inmates listening to my every word... teaching on the coming of Christ. If you remember... at the exact time Jesus gave up His life an earthquake shook Jerusalem and God tore the temple curtain in two from top to bottom...

All of a sudden the prison walls and floor started shaking and all the inmates started clapping. It was awesome!"

Having lived in the Ring of Fire in New Guinea for 16 years, we were accustomed to regular shakes and quakes--more than a dozen per year from 6.0 to the 8's on the rektor scale! Water would slosh out of our water tank, tins would rattle off the shelves in our pantry, and trees would fall into the river and float away. Tribal people would wonder if the gods were angry.

We were so far interior there were no streets or big buildings to crumble. Difficult to judge intensity from our vantage point, though I once watched the ground at the airstrip rolling toward me like a big sheet.  

On the East Coast USA, people aren't familiar with the sound that resembles a crew of Thunderbirds rushing overhead at sonic speeds, and that's a much riskier place to be. Whole cities of concrete and bridges and overpasses and even tunnels could quickly crumble and bury people alive. I read about people flashing back to 9-11 last week and wondering if terrorists were involved as they rushed out of tall buildings.

Listen, earthquakes, tornados, tsunamis and hurricanes are more frequent, more powerful, and hitting more places around the globe than ever before. 100-year records are being broken in many categories according to the data. This isn't made up hype by any stretch.

Scientists on global watch and response teams have been studying these things for decades already. They've been meeting since at least the 90's when they called the 80's a decade of alarming natural disasters.

The majority don't make the headlines, but every single day there are recorded natural disasters of one kind of another. Cyclones, droughts, earthquakes, flooding, freak waves, hurricanes, landslides, meteor strikes, mystery booms/skyquakes, pandemics, record-breaking disasters, solar flares, space weather, tropical storms, tsunamis, volcanoes, unusual animal behavior, weather extremes and wildfires are observed... You can read the observations of world class scientists (their speeches at summits are on public record) or read daily records such as http://globaldisasterwatch.blogspot.com/ 

It's increasing on a global scale. Now scientists are expecting a massive solar flare that could knock out our cellphones and technology. There's nothing we can do to prevent these global or universal eruptions. When it happens (and scientists are saying it's not a matterof 'if' but 'when' in their writtn report), we need to be prepared. 

How, you ask?

Please think about this if you've never thoughtfully done it before. How could someone predict all this with such accuracy 2000 years ago?

"'Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven. ... There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. At that time they will see the Son of Man, coming in a cloud with power and great glory. ..'

'Look at the fig tree and all the trees. When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near. Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near. I tell you the truth... Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.'

'Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with disspation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap. For it will come upon all those who live on the face of the whole earth. Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.' Each day Jesus was teaching at the temple ... and all the people came... to hear him..."
Luke 21:10-38 New International Version of the Bible

All these things come as warnings from a gracious God who wants us to receive forgiveness. Jesus said plainly it all points to his coming and soon we will see Him restore all things and recreate the heavens and the earth. This is what I pray for. We need help!

Perhaps this is hard to think about if you are wealthy and content with life, but imagine the prayers of the millions of victims of human trafficking, 27 million slaves, 10 million children, 40 million displaced worldwide, countless abused, oppressed, hungry and imprisoned...

Like the men in Walter's Bible study, they will stand up and clap for joy at the expectation of being freed.

We should all look forward to a time when righteousness will reign and there will be peace at last.

Arise my love!

                                                                                

“Therefore prepare yourself and arise, and speak to them…”

Jeremiah 1:17

Dear friends old and new, near and far,

I’m sorry I let my blog lie in dormancy so long. Where did the last year and a half go?

I finished my book and moved a couple times. The first move was in Boston, and now I'm living in Rome and working with refugees. I just took a short trip to Switzerland and am planning to go to Wales next month. In all these things I've been stirred to journal more and now that I’m back in the writing groove, I’ve decided to revive the faithwalker site.

I invite you to enjoy the ride with me as I write about my travels and God-encounters, current events and issues that move me, and of course, messages from God’s Creation and spiritual reflections based on a Biblical faith.

I'd love it if you'd share comments so I could meet and include your voices from around the globe.

Sincerely,

Faithwalker