The best and worst of times

We moved truckloads of crap yesterday to the new house we are renting. It seems you never really realize how much stuff you have until you move. Before yesterday I would have said that we live pretty light and don't have that much junk. Today I am overwhelmed with the amount of stuff "living light" translates into.

We had a boatload of people show up to help, and all of them humbled me as they moved our crap from one place to another. On the way to the new house, one of our cars died, and one couple drove almost an hour back and trailered the piece of junk to the new house. It was way beyond the call of duty. Everyone's gift of time and muscle was way beyond the call of duty and friendship. How do you repay people for that kind of love?

Then there was the other side of humanity. Some new neighbor had to stop in - as we were in the middle of unloading our crap- worried about how many cars we might have that might make the neighborhood unsightly. Someone took the keys to the house, so we were left without access to the little guest cabin out back that was to become our extra bedroom. Currently the nice mattress for that room is covered in 5 inches of snow and sleet leaning against the door we have no key for. The previous tenant's stuff is in almost every room, so we can't set up anything. There was no offer to move the junk; no willingness to let us move the junk; and little empathy for our plight.

It was weird to experience total opposite treatment from the same human race. One side selfless and giving; the other thoughtless and unkind.

Yet God made us all, and somehow manages to love us, whether we are selfless and kind, or whether we are complete pigs to each other. I hope someday to be able to love with that kind of grace. But today I am stuck in frustration and finding it hard to love the lesser side of humanity.