Since we have been back in Miami, Jeff and I(with Joel's help), have been working pretty tirelessly to make an income to get things back on track for our family financially. God has been very faithful to provide work day after day. Jeff is doing 2-3 moves almost every day since getting back at the first of the year. We spend probably an hour or so every day posting ads for jobs on craigslist. He posts for moving and assembly of furniture and I post for house cleaning.
When we first got back, I was not getting any calls. Before we left for a few weeks in December I was doing a job or two a week. So this past week it picked back up again all of the sudden. I guess everyone was through the Holidays and ready to get back into a routine.
So this week I got a call from a lady that lives on Hallendale Beach on the 36th floor of one of the nicest high rise apartments in the area. Her apartment is beautiful. When you walk in all you can see is ocean for miles and miles. If you could jump from her balcony you would land on the beach. On the other side of her apartment is an amazing view of the intercoastal and the city. Either way you look there is beauty! The kind of beauty that would seem to make you happy no matter who you are.
I guess I was wrong. No sooner had I walked in and was swept away by the beauty, was my moment stolen by the incessant complaining of this lady who wanted me to clean her apartment. She could not stop talking about how messed up everything was. How nasty the tile was, how aweful the appliances were, how unusuable the kitchen was and how terrible it was that you could see the Master Bedroom from the front door. She did this for about 45 minutes.
What was most interesting about this whole situation was how clean her apartment was. Now if you know me well, you know that I am pretty OCD. I do like a clean house, I do like things organized, and I do drive my family nuts by the amount of cleaning that I tend to do. So for me to say this ladies apartment was clean is a big statement, but it was clean and I was looking around for anything that I could possibly clean.
After about an hour of following her around while she explained what I needed to do, I realized something very important. She is a very lonely lady! She pays someone to drive her everywhere, she pays someone to come make out her checks to pay her bills, and now she pays me to come clean her already clean apartment, twice a week! That's right, twice a week, for 5 hours each time I go. This is a small apartment that under normal circumstances would take me about 2 hours to clean. She is lonely!
The hard part is, she thinks she has to buy her companionship. So many people here in Miami are very lonely. We see it all the time. Many of them just lock themselves up in their house and decide that it is a way of life and they need to get used to it. This lady, has, at least figured out she needs people around her. She understands that she needs to have a community of people to help her live life. I just feel sad that she feels like she has to pay for it.
So many are searching for that authentic community that will bring their lonely hearts out of hiding.
Please pray for us, that as we meet people who are lonely that we can help them meet the one who is a true friend. That we show the love of Jesus in such a way that they crave a relationship with him and that they will find the real community that they are looking for. Please pray that we can be an authentic community for the people around us.
No comments:
Post a Comment