Being Dumped On

I had a wonderful Mother's Day!

I visited my parents Saturday and Sunday and even had a fantastic dinner at White Fence Farm in Lemont, IL with my parents and my brother and sister-in-law. After a wonderful day of celebrating mom I took off for home and arrived back in Bloomington around 6pm. Imagine my shock and surprise when I found about 20 yards of tree debris outstide the front of my house! The pile was at least 8 feet high and covered the entire length of my parkway (that ingenious part of land from your sidewalk to the street). Where did this pile of wood come from? I quickly inventoried the trees from my yard. Nope! All trees present and 'counted for. I noticed my neighbors had the trunk of the cut tree in their front yard. Ah HA! It was theirs. Was it storm damage? But then why dump the bulk of their waste in my yard.

Was I angry? Let me ask you this. What if you arrived home to find that your parent or brother or sister had taken their trash and put it in front of your room. What if you found trash in front of your locker at school? Even if you knew at some point a janitor would come by with a broom - you'd still be hurt. So was I angry? Simply - yes. What do you do when someone does something against you? What does God want us to do? "Love your neighbor as yourself," Jesus says. Ok, so I'll wait and see what my "neighbor" says to me. Maybe they will apologize? Maybe they will make up for it. That was Sunday, today is Tuesday and still no word from my neighbors even after writing them a direct but nice note about being a little upset. "But what if they don't apologize? What if they never admit they were wrong?" This is where is gets tricky for us. God asks us to forgive, to have the courage to forgive those that do something against us.

Ephesians 4:31-32 tells us what happens when we don't forgive and what we should do instead.
"Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you."

If you (or if I) continue to be angry and upset you'll live a life of bitterness, rage and anger. If you dare to have the courage to forgive you're following God's plan (which so often seems alien to us) and following God's role model. We would rather be the victim. Sulking around being angry and plotting revenge. Revenge always makes things worse. I received lots of revenge ideas from friends ranging from the absurd funny to the downright awful. True forgiveness allows you to really deal with what's hurting you and sometimes even helps make things better between you and your: friend, parent, school bully, teacher, teammate, or yes even your neighbor.

So what am I going to do? I wrote a note expressing my feelings of disappointment. I told them honestly what they could do to make the situation better and now I leave it up to them. I cannot make them feel guilty. I cannot make them really do anything. Yes there are courts and lawyers and police, and so on and so on. If a lot of damage was done I may have considered it but being angry sometimes makes you think the situation is worse than it is. Sometimes there may not be anything you can do but just forgive them. I think we can all remember a time when this was true. I am pretty sure that the city will come by the end of the week to remove the "tree" and eventually no trace will be around. I can remain hurt day in and day out every time I see my neighbor or I can move on and forgive. God could be up in heaven angry and hurt at what His people are doing to Him and each other. Thankfully Jesus had the courage to love us and die for us and God instead loves us unconditionally.

Have the courage today to forgive someone today for something that you cannot change.

PS- The first picture is my front yard, the second is my neighbor's - YIKES!

-Rob