The Only Thing that Matters

I was unwise and careless and now, we are paying for the consequences. We installed a window air-conditioning unit and paid $40 per month throughout the summer to the Housing Office. The school requires that the residents removed their window air-conditioning unit by October 1. We removed it on October 2.

The Housing Office notified me today that our delay was unacceptable and that we will have to pay $40 because the unit was still in our window on October 1. I am at fault. I assumed there was a grace period. I assumed that since we we are to take it down by October, we would not be charged for this month. I assumed wrongly. And I was filled with remorse at the thought of paying $40 for my carelessness.

Then, my mind recalls yet another Policy, another set of Rules: "Yahweh is our God, Yahweh alone. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your life, with all your strength. Love your neighbor as yourself." The only Policy that truly matters, truly good, with a Giver who is truly powerful to punish all who do not obey. Yet, I am infinitely more careless and infinitely more presumptuous when it comes to this Policy.

Praise to our Lord and King that He is a kind and gracious ruler! He knows all my failings, all of the ways I do not obey and am not able to fulfill his requirement. Yet, in his justice, he suffered and died for the penalty that was mine.

The King died in my place. The King forgives me.
Rest, O my soul, put your hope in God.