power company is loving

our power company here in Cincinnati is very loving and gracious... i really mean it.

you see, last winter, we refinished about a thousand square feet of flooring in our house on the first floor. it's an absolutely stupid thing to do during the winter, because you have to open all the doors for 2 days so the chemicals in the poly-whatever-polenes that you put down don't give you heart murmers or whatever-mers...

But that was when our helpers were available, and we knew that the summers would be a bad time to do it, just the same, for different reasons... So onward we went, pulling out carpet, pulling nails, tack strips, staples... Renting a heavy belt sander and buying all the paper...

John Parran (JP) (JJ to his family) did all the sanding. In less than 2 days, he spent 24 and a half hours behind that huge monster of a sander... Justin Stace, John Lyendecker (Friar John), Dan Egan (Catholic Dan), and Tom-O (now in prison), all spent major time in the press with us.

Long story short (this is about the power company), our heating bill was like, more than a thousand dollars! And had been around 500 for a couple of months, and we weren't making enough money to cover...
So I did what any responsible man would do. I prayed and waited... and money didn't show for about two months, to cover it.

During the two months of waiting, I called CG&E, or Cinergy, our Power Utility company here in Cinci. They were SOOOO GRACIOUS!!! They really cared that we were in need. They didn't threaten us. They gave us plenty of grace period, and within a short while (of months), we were all paid up, because the Lord is gracious...

But look at this... Cinergy wasn't FAIR to us. They didn't treat us FAIRLY. They treated us with grace. That's Big Business, showing grace!

You know how Jesus paraboled about grace and servants and masters and daily work time and fairness and jealousy? a big one is in
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MATTHEW 20
9"The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. 10So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12'These men who were hired last worked only one hour,' they said, 'and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.'

13"But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? 14Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?'

16"So the last will be first, and the first will be last."
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I love the people at our power company. They go beyond fair, approaching justice with mercy.
an example of how Grace exists in Big Business...