Sermon Central
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Spite Fences: Isolation
Contributed by Wade Martin Hughes, Sr on May 4, 2021 (message contributor)
THE ISOLATION OF SPITE FENCES…
Years ago I build a very close relationship with a pastor in our community. We often visited and had sweet communion together. We would exchange ideas and notes with each other. Our friendship grew. This man pastored a larger church than I did. His church was in the middle of the business district. The church property bordered a huge grocery chain store. Often times the customers and the delivery trucks would park in the edge of the church’s parking lot. The pastor would get so angry that people parked in the churches parking lot. He went to the manager and the owner of the store and demanded the parking on the church’s parking lot had to stop. The manager reminded the pastor that they were closed on Sunday and Wednesday night and that the church people parked in the business’ lot.
The pastor did not care. He demanded the parking in “HIS LOT” stop.
After several months the pastor was so angry he approached the board and again demanded they do something about the parking in their lot during the week. The board voted to build a large concrete block fence down the property line to stop the parking once and for all. Several men volunteered and the pastor and his friends dug a footer and mixed the concrete and started laying the block. They would lay a block, leave a space, then another block. The customers and the delivery trucks could no longer park in the church’s lot. This made the pastor so happy. He finally stopped the parking and isolated his parking lot.
Several months later the Pastor purchased a shiny brand new beautiful Lincoln Continental. It was so beautiful. Several months went by with the pastor coming and going. There was no business parking on the church lot. But Sunday morning found a new problem. There was not enough room to park for the church attenders. The pastor never considered this.
One day the pastor’s wife was leaving the church and forgot all about the “SPITE FENCE?” She backed his beautiful brand new LINCOLN CONTINENTAL into the fence. Several hundred concrete blocks crumbled on his brand new car. SEE THE SPITE FENCE NOT ONLY KEPT THE PEST AWAY… THE SPITE FENCE TRAPPED limited and isolated their property. It cost several thousand dollars to repair the car and several church people complained they had backed into the wall and the limited parking… so a group of workers took down the SPITE FENCE.
BEING LEFT ALONE? BEING SOCIALLY AND SPIRITUALLY ISOLATED IS VERY UNHEALTHY AND CAN LEAD TO SERIOUS PROBLEMS… A 1980 study claims that the feeling of being alone with few friends and few family members is as detrimental as smoking, drinking alcohol and not exercising. YOUR CHANCE OF DYING EARLY MAY BE 50% HIGHER…
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