the man under my house

I grew up around houses. I lived in one. I watched them being built. I watched them being sold. I built my own out of Lincoln logs on my grandparent’s floor.

Two rules for Lincoln logs with Papa: whoever dumps them out of the bucket has to pick them up, and no matter what you always start your house with a strong foundation.

I was always the one who dumped them out of the bucket.

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Tonight, there was a man under the floor of my house. Right now, there is dirt all over the inside of my house, FROM UNDERNEATH MY HOUSE. Weird. I understand that my home is not built on a concrete slab of a foundation…but really…there’s just dirt under there?

So we had roaches. Apparently, the good kind. Our kind didn’t fly, or reproduce uncontrollably. Or something. Either way they were roaches and they kept drowning themselves in our sink. So today the exterminator(s) came.

The first one showed up early. He was almost done by the time we even got home from work. All I had to do when I walked in the door was sign so he could charge my credit card. Perfect.

Really, it was perfect.

When exterminator #1 was about to leave he got a call from exterminator #2, who would be inspecting for termites. I didn’t have any firm plans so I said sure, have him come as soon as he can. Later exterminator #2 called me and made sure I still wanted him to come. This was at 6:45…their window was 5:00-7:00pm…just under the wire exterminator #2, but sure come on over…should only take about 45 minutes to an hour? 

Sounds great.

Some quick texting and I had dinner with a group of friends set up for 8pm, just the perfect amount of time according to my calculations and exterminator #2’s timeline.

It ended up being one of those nights that you look around as you are talking to exterminator #2’s children on your driveway (wondering why his kids were there…so were we) and think this is just ridiculous.

Then, all of a sudden, one of the children says “I know your friend, she was our leader at VBS last week”. And you think “sure that makes sense, she must have seen Jess come home”

…except she didn’t. She recognized her picture on our fridge…which she saw from the porch through the window on our back door. Because she is a child on a service call, and kids do and say whatever they want. 

And THAT is when you realize just how weird it all is.

I didn’t get to meet friends for dinner until after 9:00…I didn’t even bother ordering because I didn’t want them to have to keep waiting. I scammed food off my friend’s plate. Not the enchiladas I was craving. Not even close.

I have a tendency to get really irritated and super frustrated when things mess up my plans. Especially when I feel like I am letting people down (it was my idea to have dinner and I barely made it there before the restaurant closed).  But as I sat on my couch thinking about the amount of stuff I have to put back in cabinets and the amount of dirt I need to get off my floor and the possibility of termites or that the wood holding up my house might rot…I prayed.

I prayed for patience and I prayed that I could show love and show grace even when I was being inconvenienced. And I hope I did that. I do know that after talking with this man’s children that I’m not going to call and complain to his supervisor about the various things I wanted to at first.

Tonight children helped me understand a little more about seeing people for more than the service they are providing me. They are awesome kids and he seems like a great dad.

I want to be better at loving people. I want to be better at seeing people the way Jesus sees them.

Loving people means being willing to be inconvenienced; to have your plans put on hold. But it also means having a pretty amusing conversation with a ten-year-old and a seven-year-old on your front porch on a Thursday night.

Plus, at the end of the day I have to remember that Jesus was a lot more than inconvenienced because of his love for me.