The Homeowners Meeting
By Doug Bing, Washington Conference president
Recently there was a homeowner’s association meeting in our neighborhood. It was quite well attended for a number of reasons.
The announcement for the meeting stated that homeowners’ dues were going to be discussed and needed to be raised.
But the real reason was a rumor that one of the homeowners in the community was wanting to run for president.
This is not usually newsworthy for our small community of homes. Yet this individual had made a name for themselves by constantly complaining about how the current administration never did anything correctly. They also constantly reported to the homeowner’s administration any perceived infractions of the rules by others in the community. They were known to use very foul language on anyone who may question them, including children who happen to be walking by their home.
Thus, the homeowners meeting was packed.
The meeting started and soon disintegrated into a shouting match between this individual, the homeowner’s president and anyone in the crowd who questioned them.
Finally, it came time to replace the president who was moving away. The rumor turned out to be true. This individual wanted to run for president. The question was asked if anyone else wanted to throw their hat into the ring.
There was complete silence for a long period of time.
Finally, another person stepped forward. Before the election took place, the troublesome homeowner wanted to make a speech. As they started to make a speech tearing apart all the actions of the previous administration and swearing their way through the speech, the other candidate quietly stood there saying nothing.
When the noisy neighbor was done with their speech the other candidate declined to say anything other than their name. The quiet candidate won by a landslide. In fact, the troublesome homeowner did not receive any votes.
As I reflected on the raucous meeting, there were several challenges that I took from there.
- The two great commandments are simple. Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. As I thought about this since then, I have wondered how to reach out to this neighbor and show God’s love. The Bible doesn’t say love the neighbors that are easy to love. It says love your neighbor. We all may have neighbors in our life that challenge our ability to love. Start praying for them and most of all pray for a soft heart to reach them.
- The tale of the two candidates remind me of the two candidates who seek control of our lives. One is the accuser and always pointing out faults of everyone and of you. Reporting everyone’s faults to the world and saying how unreasonable God is towards us. The other is Jesus who quietly stands at the door and knocks wanting more than anything to be elected to be the king of our lives. He truly wants us to elect Him by loving us with everything we have. That is the election we can be involved with every single day of our lives.