Justice, Today

Confession: I sincerely struggle to understand God's love for me. Though I see through a glass darkly, I get His goodness and His sovereignty. That He has matchless power. I believe He causes all things to work for the good of those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose. What I honestly don't grasp is the extent of His care for His beloved, particularly me, a sinner, condemned, unclean. I say that He cares for even my relatively trivial concerns, but I have doubts when I'm actually confronted with trials. Yet Peter tells us to cast all our anxieties on God, because He cares for us (1 Peter 5.6-7).

As many of you know, a recent anxiety Kelli and I have experienced has to do with our previous apartment complex falsely accusing us of breaking our lease and threatening litigation lest we pay more than $1,600. In an e-mailed prayer request to her small group girls, Kelli briefly summarized the situation:

Ryan and I recently finished up our lease at our townhome and bought a house. Well, we only gave a 45 day notice that we weren't going to renew our lease, and we apparently were supposed to give 60 days. We asked them if they would make an exception, but they said they wouldn't, so we were told to pay half of our rent for June to reach the required 60 days for notice (even though we had already moved out). Anyway, around the first of June, I went back to our townhome to finish getting our stuff out and then was going to turn our keys in. Well, when I went to our townhome, there were people inside already painting to get it ready for the next tenant. When I went to the office and asked them about it, they said that we didn't have to pay for June since they had already taken over our townhome. I was assured that I should only expect to receive a bill in the mail for the water and gas for May.

Well, a couple of days ago, we received a letter from a collections agency saying we owe more than $1600 to our apartment complex. They are claiming that we terminated our lease early. We have been trying to straighten this out but so far have been unsuccessful. Both the collections agency and the apartment complex say that they can't do anything and that we'll have to talk to the other. We haven't been able to get our apartment manager to call us back, so I'm guessing we're going to have to go in there and try and straighten it out in person. If we can't get it straightened out, it will have to go to litigation.

We never did get the apartment manager on the phone. So I e-mailed her boss, the regional manager. His reply:

Thank you for your patience while I looked into the matter regarding your lease agreement. I did see that you gave notice on April 19, and per our lease agreement you signed we do require a 60-day notice of intent to vacate. There was also a second addendum that you signed that is specific only to that very issue. You were correct in the pro-rated amount of $473.40. That is all that you were obligated to, the staff was in error to turn you over to the collection agency for the termination charge. Also we should have received written permission from you to prepare the home before you had returned keys. Please accept this as notification that your balance with Jamestown apartments has been cleared and we will send a written letter to the collection agency and yourself stating the same. I want to apologize for the error on our part and sincerely hope that if the need for an apartment home comes up for you again, that you would reconsider living with us.

With the hymnist: How marvelous, how wonderful is my Savior's love for me! Ultimately, that love is expressed in bearing our burden and shedding His blood at Calvary, covering the sins of all those who trust Him for salvation. But His love stretches to our everyday concerns. I want to be clear: We know that God is good and does good all the time. And we do not expect the scales of justice to be balanced in this life (for all wrongs to be righted, we wait for Jesus' return, Rev 22.12). God is worthy of praise regardless of the outcome of this situation. Here, however, His justice did not tarry, and, more importantly and unnecessarily, He demonstrated the care Peter faithfully reported.

Trust Jesus. Not in hopes that He will do your financial bidding. Trust Jesus because He has, once for all, paid the penalty for sins and has earned forgiveness for those who trust Him. Not only has He cleared our debt of guilt against His holy Father, our Creator, but He also has enabled our accounts to be credited with His perfect righteousness...if we trust Him alone!

Praise the One who turned the heart of our apartment's regional manager (Prov 21.1). Praise the One who tuned our hearts to see Jesus for who He is (2 Cor 4.6)! "It will be my joy through the ages to sing of His love for me!"