Day 2

Today I woke up with the thought of a fresh start in my head. As I heard Jordan's alarm go off, I turned over and slowly got out of bed (I am NOT a morning person!) As soon as I had some coffee and hopped in the shower, I remembered that this was my new beginning. I began to wonder what God had in store for me today. I wondered what He would have me do to help someone out--to make someone's day, and in turn-make mine. When I got to work this morning, I got so busy that the whole matter sort of escaped my mind. For those who may not know, I work for a real estate company who leases complexes, condos and lofts in the Birmingham area. I handle their accounting which means that the middle part of my month consists of drawing up termination notices as well as making arrangements with tenants who are late on their rent or homeowners association fees. Needless to say, I hear a lot of reasons why people are "late". Maybe they have been out of town, maybe they have been in the hospital....who knows. I hear it ALL! After being so used to working in an environment where everything seemed to be black and white, it is difficult adjusting to dealing with gray areas that exist in my new job. I am very fortunate that I have the authority in my position to basically decide who stays and who goes. Fortunate meaning my career advancement--not fortunate on having to make that call. I am thankful that I have been given the responsibility and trusted to make such big decisions, but sometimes those calls are hard to make. I have developed my own routine and have my own little "system" that I try pretty hard to stick with. There are always exceptions, but for the most part the process is the same. In my position, I can either be the hero who works with someone, draws up a contract with them to make sure they are not evicted, or I can be the bad guy who takes legal action against them through our company's attorney. Both were just a job to me. However, lately it has been getting more and more difficult to be the bad guy. It's not just a job anymore--I seem to take it more personally than I used to--good for my spiritual growth, bad for my career. In my industry, "it's not personal, it's just business". I abided by that religiously for so long--until this change in me began.

I seeked for guidance and a way for me to distinguish between the ones who were legitimately having serious financial problems, and those who were just taking us for a ride. Much easier said than done. This month, I have taken legal action on a few people already--most of who never bothered to call or give a story at all. This is easier for me to handle than dealing with the ones who do. However, today I was getting ready to file a collection form on someone and hand it right over to the attorney.....and then he called. I pulled his file and saw that he was very behind on his rent. He gave me the whole "I was out of town" spill and I tried so hard decide if he was being honest or not. I started asking questions. Why was he out of town? Why had he not called? About that time that old, deep-voiced man got silent. He then broke down and cried on the other end of the phone. He had just lost his brother. He had been to his funeral in Detroit while also taking care of his financial obligations with his own money. I knew at that moment that he was telling the truth. I went out on a limb and did what I could to hold off on the eviction process. He was very grateful to me and thanked me over and over.I got off the phone with him and started to worry. I vouched for this guy and postponed us getting a lot of money right away. What if I misjudged him? What if this falls back on me? And it definitely would. Like my daddy always said, "with great power comes great responsibility". I could be held responsible for this if he didn't hold up with his end of the deal.

A few hours ago, I heard a knock on my office door. It was that man. He came inside with a large folder. Inside, it contained all of the funeral bills, life insurance information, etc. Everything that proved to me that he was honest. I made copies of it all and put it with his file. He signed his contract that I had typed up and went on his way.....but not before he thanked me one more time.

Something inside told me to trust that man. I choose to believe that something was God. By doing so, I was able to help him and he was able to reassure me of the everlasting mercy of God's grace. Today was a good day and I am thankful for it.