Earlier in the week, I was reminded of an incident from over 7 years ago where some of my friends came over to Loughborough, where I lived for 7 years. Our church was organising a full weekend of events and as they were alumni and we were friends, all 3 of them stayed in my small flat, more like a studio.
Let’s branch off a bit. How that flat managed to contain sometimes over 20 people in one Sunday afternoon, is still a mystery to me. But I think there are few miracles that can be wrought by the power of home-made Nigerian food to bring the people together!
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Back to our story for today. So my friends were glaming up getting ready for the events and somehow, one of them managed to dysfunctionalize (I know that’s not a word! Language was made for man, not the other way round!) my hair dryer. I’ll be honest. I was visibly annoyed. She even had to buy me another one! It was about £15.
Yesterday, I borrowed a friend’s lawnmower to help another friend mow her lawn which was so high, it could have been a good playground for hide and seek! Now, I have never mowed a lawn in my life! All grass cutting I have ever done have either been by hand or by cutlass, and those were in them cruel places they called boarding schools in Nigeria, where students were also stand-ins for caretakers and facility managers!
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We started mowing the front lawn, and got down to a triangular patch left. People, the lawnmower went off and refused to come back on. We tried everything we knew to try. Nada! Zilch! Mr Flymo wasn’t having it. Whether it was because it was wet grass, or grass from a different house, or two different first time mowers handling him, I don’t know. He just refuse to work.
I called the owners because I knew they would know their possession more than us two combined. I did all I was advised, nothing happened. It just kept clicking when we tried to turn it on. We had to give up and temporarily leave the front lawn looking like it just had a bad mohawk hair cut from a back alley barber!
We cleaned it out and I took it back to the owners. We tried starting it there, nothing still. Just clicks. And then the thing I wanted to hear but didn’t really want to hear was spoken.
“Don’t worry about it!”
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I protested. I really don’t like messing people’s things up. I protested for about 5 minutes but let’s just say I was shoved out because he really did mean for me not to worry. I called his wife later to explain everything that happened. Same thing. She too almost kicked me off the phone, telling me not to worry. I kept apologising and I could feel her getting annoyed at refusing her extension of grace. The compromise was that they would tell me when next they try to use it.
Then I felt God, amongst other points, remind me of the story of the Unforgiving Servant in Matthew 18:23-35, who threw someone that owed him pennies into jail, after he had been forgiven thousands of pounds!
Mine was in reverse. I had demanded payment from my friend for a mere hairdryer, that I barely use. Another friend forgave me of an industrial lawnmower that must cost a lot more than the hair dryer. Dear D**i, I would like to apologise for making you replace my hairdryer. I was and still am a work-in-progress in this area of finances, but I’ve definitely come a long way. You have probably forgotten, and I’m thankful we are still friends till today.
To your learning of the grace of God, . . .
P.S.: With all that’s going on in the world, remember, Rejoice! Again, I say, Rejoice!! Or Laughter is good medicine for the soul .
My new book on my funny classroom stories will help you laugh. You can now order it on Amazon. And please leave me a review and I shall be very grateful.
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