Abraham Feels My Pain
Some people on the team decided to move back to the States and left an apartment full of furniture and a stack of bills behind them. Guess who was given the job to clean it up? That's right, yours truly, the single guy. It's hard doing business in this country. It's ridiculously hard doing business in this country when you're a foreigner.
I won't go into the details, but suffice it to say I've had plenty of arguments and dealt with several people that tried to stiff me in the process of getting the furniture and stuff moved and finalizing everything with the old apartment. Tomorrow I've got to go hunt down the guy that stole the water heater, and I doubt I'll get it back without at least 30 minutes of arguing. I'm pretty frustrated, but I found comfort from a story in the Bible.
I read this morning a story about Abraham that really brought me comfort. In Genesis 23 we read that Sarah died. Since Abraham was living in a foreign country and had no land, he went to the elders of the city and asked to buy a burying place for his wife. (That is, he was a foreigner who had to do business with the locals. Sound familiar?) Abraham wanted to buy a field from this guy named Ephron. Ephron accepted, but charged Abraham 400 shekels of silver. That's completely ridiculous. Jeremiah bought a field for all of 17 shekels (Jer. 32:9). Ephron completely shafted Abraham, and what did Abraham do? He accepted and paid the 400 shekels. He had no other choice. God was watching over Abraham, and God was watching over me. Me and Abraham still got shafted, but God is in control.
Great attitude, dude. Do what's right and leave the rest to God.
Posted by
Doug Jett |
12:30 PM
People who have never been to certain places in the world cannot appreciate the fine art of haggling for everything. It took me a while to get in the swing of it, but when my dad came to visit, he loved it. Stand firm and enjoy your haggling....in truth and love of course.
Posted by
Polarbear |
2:38 PM