"I was a stranger and you invited me in."

 This one will be hard to write. It will also probably be poor written. 

Evie and I are very serious about living righteously...about connecting walk with talk, belief and action. 

We look to the Word...particularly to the teachings and example of Jesus...particularly to the Sermon on the Mount and the Sheep and Goats teaching...for our marching orders.

(As an aside, speaking only for myself, it's my opinion that one reason that the Lord of all authority and power and grace and mercy and blessing is not blessing us,...or, a reason that our institutional body is in the midst of a generations long slide into spiritual decay and numerical decline is that we get righteousness wrong. 

Far too many of us think of "going to church" as an act of righteousness. According to what I see in the Word, gathering is a means for disciples to spur each other on to righteousness but it is not itself righteousness.)

Anyway, when Jesus defined righteousness in the Sheep and Goats teaching, He said, "I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,..." and so on.

We believe that. We DO it. We figure that Jesus knew what righteousness is for people who follow Him.

Over the years, we've welcomed several people into our home. Some of those people were known to us beforehand. 

Some were, literally, complete strangers. 

A few years back, the company Evie was working for decided to take a bit of a risk and to hire a guy who was just getting out of prison. 

He was moving into the area and needed a place to live. After discussing it with Evie's employer, we learned that the guy had a shack up girlfriend and that she had a daughter in elementary school. 

Evie and I talked some, prayed some and allowed ourselves to be confronted by the gospel. We invited them...complete strangers...to live with us.

What an experience. 

Before they moved in, another stranger knocked on our door, unannounced and uninvited, saying that he's a probation officer and that, actually, we need to be approved by him for, their names and Steve, Jenny and Erin to be domiciled with us.

We invited him in. He had a long questionnaire to go through with us. The meeting was a tad amusing. It may be that he'd never met anyone like us. 

Apparently, normally he interviewed people who themselves had criminal records. A few questions into the conversation, he began to apologize for having to ask the questions or saying, "I know that the answer to this is, 'no,' but I have to ask it anyway..."

Obviously, we passed muster with the Probation Office.

Steve, Jenny and Erin moved in and lived with us, as I recall, for about a year before they were able to afford their own apartment. 

Jenny is sweet. She actually worked with me at the store as a part timer for a few months. Erin, her daughter, is a pretty serious extrovert. Many young extroverts just can't seem to SHUT UP, and she couldn't. She was a bit of a challenge, but her mom managed her compassionately. 

Steve was a nice guy and easy to live with. But, there was something underneath. He'd apparently made bad friends with whom he'd committed a very serious gun crime. Hence, his time in prison. And, while we only ever saw him sober, we could see that under the influence of drugs and alcohol, he might be capable of just about anything. 

When they moved out, it was nearby so we saw them, from time to time, especially when they shopped at the store. And, we were always comfortable with each other and friendly and usually sought each other out to take a few minutes to catch up with each other. 

After we moved here and I was forced not to work, we'd had no contact. Perhaps Evie and Jenny exchanged a few texts. 

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So, yesterday I was listening to local news on the radio and heard that a murder had taken place on Saturday night on the road that dissects the campus of the Home...less than a half mile from here...

...and that a guy with Steve's, very common, last name had been arrested for committing it.

I googled and, sure enough, I saw his mugshot. 

Our Steve is very obviously guilty of the murder.

I'm still trying to sort out the emotions.

We've been in contact with Jenny and made ourselves available to her.

As opportunity presents itself, we'll reach out to Steve. We may have an opportunity to do the, "I was in prison and you visited me," thing. 

But, wow.

Our Steve, a murderer. 

It will take a while for this to sink in. 

Living in our house!

It's amazing where life takes you when you follow Jesus.