Old Trucks and City Codes

I remember my brother telling me about how mad he was that he couldn’t work on his truck in front of his house in Lincoln, Nebraska. It was his first house in the big city. We grew up in small town Arkansas, and he’d previously lived with his wife and daughter out in the middle of the desert near Flagstaff, Arizona, so he didn’t really have much experience with city codes and neighborhood organizations. It all sounded silly to me, and I even thought he was being a bit silly, too. I subconsciously thought that I wouldn’t find myself in that situation.

For one thing, I don’t really work on 30 year-old trucks, spewing their guts across my front lawn.

But last month, I faced the code enforcement guy on my porch. And I felt the white hot flames of rebellion creep up from the center of my chest and burn my cheeks. I had been reported. I had brush on my curb. Someone didn’t like it. Several people didn’t like it. And where I live, the people who pass my house every day just happen to be some of the right people to get quick action.

How dare they?

Don’t they know who I am? Don’t they know how hard I work on that house? Don’t they think I’m intelligent enough to call the brush people myself? I should put a snarky sign in my yard! I should do something even more annoying that doesn’t break any codes! I should go down the street and report any little violation I can find!

The longer I thought about it, the more a still, quiet thought crept in: “As much as it depends on you, live at peace with all men.”

The truth is, my rebellion and all of my subsequent thoughts were all about myself, how I’d been wronged, how hard I work, what a good person I am, how my rights had been violated. The entire time there was something I needed to do--adhere to the city code that I was violating.

But that brings me to an uncomfortable topic. I still don’t think those people were right to complain. And if I knew who it was that reported me, if it affected my relationship with them, the right thing for me to do would be to approach them and clear the air. After I cleaned up my curb.

It’s the Matthew 18 principle. If someone has sinned, or sinned against you, if forgiveness and over-looking the sin isn’t possible, the best thing for your relationship is to go to the person by yourself and try to clear the air. If that doesn’t work, go back with a friend or two. If that doesn’t work, rest easy knowing that you did what needed to be done and give the relationship over to the Lord. I find that usually it doesn’t get that far.

Because people usually like giving and receiving forgiveness. And because those who have received Christ’s forgiveness understand what it is to be forgiven of more than they could ever pay back.