Ok, you may be wondering what good can possibly come from bed bugs. This one needs some explaining.
My roommate Tim was telling me about the house we’re living in right now. He owns the house, and he shared with me what happened to make it the 5-guy Catholic men’s house that it is right now.
Apparently, he came back from a lot of work outside the Boston area recently and found that the top 3-bedroom apartment was trashed. The place was left a mess, with even graffiti on the walls, garbage strewn about, and a lot of property missing. He planned that he would clean it up in a few weeks and live in the largest room on the top floor, with another friend of ours living in one of the other rooms.
There was one big problem though.
Bed bugs.
Yes, those little critters had infested a bedroom, and when he brought an exterminator in, he got some news. “All the paneling in the house has to go.” I guess bedbugs can nest in areas behind wall paneling and spread throughout the house. Who knew?
Well, if the paneling comes down, then the walls and the door trims have to be redone and everything has to be painted.
Now, a cleaning job was turning into a whole renovation project.
Tim was telling me, “I’m thinking, why am I doing all this? I know for some reason God wants me to be doing this. I don’t know what it is. I’m out of money and I just want to get started with a job and living a normal life, and I’m stuck fixing this entire house. I don’t have the money for it, and I’m wondering while I’m letting all my frustration out with the sander, what is this all about?”
Well, a short time later, another guy from St. Clement’s Shrine suddenly decided he’d take the third bedroom in the apartment.
And then, suddenly, the tenants in the first-floor unit decided they were leaving in a few weeks. Great, now I need another tenant, he told me. But just then, he heard that I was looking for a place. Tim invited me over, and we began to talk. He started to share some thoughts about maybe connecting the two units together and making one big Catholic men’s house. I liked the sound of it, and after a little time in prayer decided I was in.
A few days later, another guy from the St. Clement’s community called up Tim. One visit and he was in.
So what’s this all about, what’s my point?
When Tim started out, he had the largest bedroom on the top floor of a 3-bedroom apartment. By the end of it all, he has the smallest bedroom on the bottom floor of a 5-bedroom Catholic men’s house called the Sacred Heart House, with four brothers and many more brothers and sisters that visit, two kitchens, a common living room, common dining room for house meals, and a chapel in progress in the basement.
“Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. But many that are first will be last, and the last first.” (Mk 10:29)
What happened?
Two tiny little things happened:
Bed bugs. And Tim’s yes.
God loves little things. Oh, I tell you, God loves the littlest things. He does all His greatest works with little things, so that we can see His power and love, so we can know Him and be with Him. He humbles pride with the littlest things and raises up the lowly with the littlest things. Little Mary gave Him a little yes, and then He changed the world and all of history with it: “He has cast down the mighty from their thrones and has lifted up the lowly.” (Lk 1:51-52)
If you feel God calling you, remember He only wants something little. He does His greatest works with littleness and He can use anything little to turn lives upside down in a heartbeat.
Even bed bugs.
O, sir.. your posts make me cry.
:’-) Giving your life to Him blesses me, too. Thank you.
Carol, and your devotion to His Mercy inspires me. Thank *you*.