Winter Wake-up
Life in the Upper Flat
After graduation, a good friend and I decided to look for a place to room together in our college town. We found a two bedroom/one bath upper flat with a spacious kitchen and inviting living area. It was all that two young adults might want, or so we thought.
We moved in June, enjoying the summer breezes that wafted through the windows from front to back and side to side. No air conditioning was needed. My roommate’s bedroom at the front of the flat had a window over her bed. We could slide out of it and sit on the roof that covered the front porch of the flat below when the nights became hot. We chatted until the temperatures cooled a bit and then went back to our respective rooms to try and sleep.
We hosted many large gatherings in that flat. My roommate knew about things like cheap beer and wine. I was good at putting party food together. We bought gallons of homemade root beer from the local stand, which fermented if not quickly consumed. At each party the flat was filled with young adults looking for community and healthy connection. Laughter, deep conversation, and good times were created. The routine of work and hosting friends for meals and parties continued through the summer.
Temperature Change
Autumn arrived with falling leaves and the seasonal closure of the root beer stand. Windows needed to be shut. Autumn turned to winter and freezing temperatures. The only thermostat for the house was located in the lower flat. We had no control over it and trusted the landlord’s nephew who lived below us to monitor it with discretion. When he received the heat bill in the mail we were to split it equally.
The first bill arrived. My roommate and I were flabbergasted at the sum we owed. We couldn’t imagine the reason for the total. We checked in the crawl space of the storage and attic and discovered that the roof had no proper insulation. Stapled between each of the rafters was one sheet of cardboard. No wonder the heat bill soared.
The Real World Hits
We chatted with our downstairs neighbor about keeping the thermostat at a reasonable temperature. He liked to run around shirtless in shorts even in winter and kept the thermostat high. After approaching our landlord about the lack of insulation, he expressed no intention in making improvements.
It was a winter wake-up to life in the real world. Landlords don’t always look out for their tenants. Next door neighbors aren’t always neighborly. When a bill is split in half, it isn’t necessarily fair. Wrongs aren’t always made right. People can be selfish and not care how their actions affect others.
Our True Hope
I needed to ask myself how I might respond to this wake-up. Would I retaliate, pretend it wasn’t happening, become cynical or bitter, blame myself for my romantic ideas of living on my own, or would I forgive those who took advantage of me? I could look for a new place to live, which I eventually did, but real freedom could only happen if I forgave those whose actions affected me.
It took another ten years before I learned to truly forgive by God’s grace. When I did, I could think of my old landlord and neighbor without malice. I could see them as people like me, clumsily trying to ensure their needs were met. When we wake up to the reality that our world is broken, we discover that we are all on level ground in front of the cross, in need of a Savior. He is our true hope. That discovery is the best wake-up there is.
Genesis 9:22 “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”