Letter to the Editor: Ain’t paid no rent

By Sun Advocate

Editor:
I was in the business of moving people’s furniture for many years. As a result, I had many strange experiences.
Once a man called and asked to have his furniture moved. I said “OK.” He asked what time I would be there on Sunday. I told him I don’t work on Sunday and I would never ask any of my people to do it. He insisted that Sunday was the only day he could move.
When I suggested late Saturday evening or even early Monday morning, he still said no.
When I asked why he said that the landlord wouldn’t let him move any other day. I said, the landlord can’t tell you when you can move.
He said, yes he can.
My question to him was, what makes the landlord think he has that right? His answer to that , I think, was a real classic.
His exact words were, “Well, I ain’t paid him no rent.”
Suddenly a complex situation became very lucid. The answer? Move when the landlord has his back turned and you can leave him holding that proverbial gunny sack.
A man spends his money, his time and, in many cases, his labor to build an apartment house. He hooks up the water, the electricity, the heat and air conditioning. When people move into one of his units, he is entitled to charge them rent.
There is also a parallel to this in life.
God built the earth for us, His children to prove ourselves.He gave us the sun for heat and light, rain for water, soil for planting food, fish in the sea and in the lakes and even the night to cool us.
“If they will do all the things which the Lord shall command them.” (AB3:25)
It has been said, “Service to our fellow men is the rent we pay for the space we occupy here on earth.”
Can we ask ourselves the question, when we stand before the judgment bar of God, will our answer be, “I ain’t paid him no rent?”
I searched for God and I searched for peace and they eluded me. Then I searched for my brother and found all three.