Dear Friends.....

Rev. Evelyn Casper

Ron Lee Davis in his book, “Mistreated,” tells a true story about a millionaire who owned a lot in an exclusive residential area of a large city. This lot presented an unusual problem. It was only a couple yards wide by nearly a hundred feet long. There was nothing he could do with such an oddly proportioned piece of real estate but sell it to one of the neighbors on either side. He went first to the neighbor on the east side of his lot, and asked if he was interested in buying it. The neighbor said, “Well, only as a favor.” Then he named a ridiculously low price. 

The millionaire exploded. “Why, that’s not even one-tenth what the lot is worth!” He stormed out and went to see the neighbor on the west side. To his dismay, the neighbor on the west side bettered the previous offer by only a few dollars. “Look,” the neighbor said smugly. “I’ve got you over a barrel. You can’t sell that lot to anyone else and you can’t build on it. So there’s my offer. Take it or leave it.” 

The millionaire was beside himself with rage. Within a few days, he hired an architect and a contractor to build one of the strangest houses ever conceived. Only five feet wide and running the full length of his property, his house was little more than a row of tiny rooms, each barely able to accommodate a stick of furniture. The neighbors complained, but city officials could find no code or regulation to disallow it. 

 When it was finished, the millionaire moved into his uncomfortable and impractical house. There he stayed until his death. People came to call it Spite House. So he lived out his years in this uncomfortable depressing house, nursing his anger to the end.  And too often so do we. Nursing our anger, cherishing our grudges we cramp our lives with our resentments. We live stunted lives of limitation. No sun of compassion shines into Spite House. Forgiveness is the
answer. It opens the windows of our cell and welcomes light and fresh air into our prison. It breaks down the wall of bondage that has kept from us our heritage of joy in God’s gifts.  

Does someone keep you living in darkness - stressed, brooding and uncomfortable? Does someone keep you living in Spite House?