The Accuser Roars

What though th’ accuser roar of ills that I have done! I know them well, and thousands more, Jehovah findeth none. (Whitlock Gandy)

A couple of years ago, my son and two friends were accused of committing a federal crime in our neighborhood. Our home owner’s association sent us all letters, stating we had to go before the board and answer for these crimes. When I contacted the property manger, they said they would tell us what our son did AT the meeting. Our accuser could show up if they wanted to, but they didn’t have to. I asked them again, through another email, what we had done. The property manager said they had a lot of evidence against my son, but still wouldn’t tell me what we had done. They said, if this did not get resolved, they would put some kind of mark on our name, so if and when we tried to sell our condo, the potential buyers could see that we were problem tenants and maybe not buy from us.

We had several weeks to prepare for the meeting. But we had nothing to go on. We didn’t know what my son and his friends had done. We were supposed to wait for the meeting, then they would tell us. They said we could bring any paperwork to defend ourselves. But we didn’t know what we were defending ourselves against. I complained to my friend who had a lawyer friend that specialized in dealing with home owner’s associations. We contacted him and he said he would love to represent us for free. He hated home owner’s associations.

I emailed the property manger again, and asked if we could bring a lawyer. They said we could. I asked if they could send the letter we got from them to him and gave him his name, address and phone number. They did. And suddenly, after we had sent the info about a lawyer, they sent us the letter that had started this whole thing, accusing my son and his two friends of stealing mail and several other petty crimes.

The letter stated that a home owner had seen my son and a friend go up to a mailbox. That’s it. The guy that had seen this, said he had his mail stolen, so he knew for sure that’s what my son and his friend were doing, stealing mail. He told his neighbor, when she got home that night, that he witnessed the two kids going towards her mailbox. She called the police. Her mail wasn’t stolen, so there was nothing the police could do. The police never contacted us, ever.

The letter also accused my son and his friends of going over a brick wall that surrounds our neighborhood rather than walking around it. They said, the boys could tear down the whole wall if they kept doing that. They also said my son and his friends would play hide and seek way into the wee hours of the morning.

Reading the letter and the ridiculous accusations would have been laughable, if we didn’t feel so trapped by the whole thing. My son and his friends were being accused of stealing mail. We started talking to people and found out that the guy that accused my son did have his mail stolen once. After that, his identity was stolen and someone ordered credit cards for Victoria’s Secret and Macy’s. I told my son if he did do this, I expect to see some nice underwear for Christmas!

When we talked to my son about stealing mail he, of course, said he didn’t do it. We grilled him and asked if he ever went near other people’s mailboxes. Well, yeah, he said, when his friend liked to play ding-dong ditch. Ohhhh! You ding dongs! We figured it out. When the guy saw the boys going to the mailbox, they were ringing the door bell and running away! So that meant, no cool underwear for me!

We told the lawyer this explanation, but he said it didn’t matter. Stealing mail was a federal offense and way out of the home owner’s authority. They had no power to prosecute us. He said he could start small claim lawsuits for each of our families against the home owner’s association. He said the letter was just plain stupid.

We were all praying for this. We had many friends praying for the day we had to stand before the home owner’s association. How did it turn out? Well, the night before we were to go to the meeting, the property manger called us, emailed us and demanded that we NOT show up for the meeting. Everything was being dropped. We were off the hook.

But the process took it’s toll on us. I ended up in the hospital with diverticulitis and one of the other boy’s mom ended up in the hospital with other stress related problems. We had been accused. They were pointing their fingers at us, saying our boys were criminals. Yet, we were innocent. The whole thing reeked of the enemy’s hand. You see it’s interesting to note, that we live in a place with mostly Buddhists, Muslims, and Hindus. The three families that were accused were Christian. About the only Christian families that we know of were the three families being accused.

Being accused IS the work of the enemy. If you have thoughts that you did this and you did that and you are no good and you are… That NEVER comes from God. That IS the work of the enemy. He is the accuser. He points his finger at us and says, “Look what he/she did!” “They’re no good!”

You see God’s work on us is like a surgeon. Very carefully, very thoughtfully, he goes in and gently fixes that thing. All the enemy knows what to do, is to point his wretched finger in our direction and accuse us. But “Jehovah findeth none.”