"Chrissy, the rent is coming due, and I don't know what we're going to do!", Janet called out from the couch. Instantly Chrissy came out through the swinging kitchen door and joined Janet in the living room. "Well I don't know either, Janet, you're the one who said that everything would work out okay when we came to LA!" Janet rolled her eyes, while Chrissy just looked puzzled that what she had said wasn't enough to calm down Janet.
"Besides", Chrissy continued, why don't we just have that nice guy you met move in with us? I know the landlord is an old fuddy duddy, but couldn't we, like, say Jack was gay or something?" Janet looked shocked. "Chrissy! For one, I doubt Jack would want to be thought of as gay, and for two, that would still have us violating the landlord's rules, and he's been nothing but good to us!"
"Good at $750 a month!", Chrissy complained, and a crowd burst into a laughter, that apparently the girls could not hear. But Chrissy knew that Janet was right. "Doesn't he have any ideas, this good friend of yours?" At that moment, as if in answer to her question, there was a knock at the door. "Come in!" the girls chimed at once, and instantly a young, pleasant looking man came in, and stumbled over the step down into the living room, gave a startled two step, almost dance like, and came to be standing in front of them, like a man on a surfboard!
That same unseen crowd initially applauded the entrance of Jack, and then burst into laughter at his near fall. None of the three seemed to take note. Jack said, in a mock leering tone, "So either of you two girls willing to take in a homeless wanderer? You know what Hebrews 13:2 says, right?" Chrissy looked puzzled. Janet quoted dryly, "Do not forget to entertain strangers, for some have entertained angels unaware, but you're no angel Jack!"
The crowd laughed appreciatively. Chrissy still looked puzzled. "Is that from the Bible?", she asked Jack. "You bet it is, dear, and you want to follow the Bible, don't you?" Chrissy nodded, Janet rolled her eyes. Janet said, "Don't listen to him, Chrissy, he's looking for us to follow the part that more pertains to Sodom and Ninevah!" The crowd laughed again, and Chrissy said, "But Janet, if he's hungry, don't we have to feed him? Isn't he the least of these our brethren?"
"Oh, Jack", Janet complained in exasperation, "Now see what you've done! Come on, don't leave her like that, explain it." Jack looked hang dog and sheepish but said, "Okay, look Chrissy, I love you, but we can't use scriptures to justify bad things. I might not be all that great a Christian, but I'm good enough to know that." Seeing that she still looked puzzled, Janet chimed in, "Don't you see, Chrissy? We want to help Jack, but we can't lie to a good man like Mr. Furley and expect good to come of it. Instead we should follow the counsel in Matthew 6:33!"
"My favorite verse", muttered Jack, and the crowd gave a quick chuckle. "It should be, Jack", said Janet, "It promises that if you put matters of God and the spirit first, then all things shall be added to you - everything that you could need." Jack did a mock leer again, directed at Chrissy, and said, "Oh, I don't know, I need a lot!" The crowd laughed.
"Oh, Jack!", Janet said exasperatedly. "Need, not want, and certainly not covet! Now let's talk to Mr. Furley, he's a good Christian, and older than any of us, and he'll surely know what to do." At that moment, as if in answer to her, there was a knock at the door. "Come in!" the girls and Jack all chimed. In walked an older man, but one who was taking pains to still look young, and not doing too well at it. Instantly the crowd burst into applause, and he seemed to almost acknowledge that applause, before stepping down into the living room.
Jack and the girls looked at him appreciatively till the sound of applause died down. "Oh, Mr. Furley!", Chrissy started out, "Our friend is in need, but Janet says the Bible doesn't apply to him!" The crowd burst into laughter, and Janet rolled her eyes, Jack looked chagrined, and Mr. Furley looked concerned. "Not apply to him? What's all this? The Bible applies to everyone on Earth, but it sure as heck applies even more so to those in MY building!" The crowd laughed again.
Chrissy said, before Janet or Jack could shush her, "But Janet said that we can't help him by having him here, because it would make you mad, and we'd have to lie to you!" The unseen crowd seemed to oooh over that, as if aware that Chrissy had said something that could get the two young ladies in trouble. Jack looked panicked. Mr. Furley just said calmly, "Well, why don't you just tell me, and we'll see what makes me mad or not? Besides, so long as it's the truth, I won't get mad!"
Janet looked as if there might be some slim hope, but that she was not trusting it, and burst out, "Oh, Mr. Furley, we thought of telling you that Jack was gay, so he could stay here without you getting upset about unmarried men and women living together, but we don't want to lie, but we don't want Jack to be without a place either and we don't want to be without a place and needed a third person for help on the rent anyway, what are we going to do?"
"Well, you're not going to help him by pretending he's a God-cursed Sodomite, that's for sure!", started Mr. Furley, hitching up his pants and sniffing in moral outrage. The crowd laughed. "I mean, what was your next plan, to tell me that he dishonors his parents and worships idols?" The crowd's laughter, that had only died down a bit, now roared back out the louder. All three of the young people looked worried.
"But what are we to do, Mr. Furley?", said Jack quietly. "No one had wanted to lie, we just don't see a way out." Mr. Furley nodded and looked concerned, in a fatherly way. "Jack my boy, when you're young it can always look like you 'have to' lie or commit some other sin to get what you need, that's Satan's snare!" Jack nodded in agreement. "But Satan isn't landlord here, I am!", Mr. Furley continued, "And I can tell you that the counsel of Matthew 6:33 that Janet told you of was spot on."
The three looked surprised. Janet exclaimed, "Mr. Furley! You were listening outside our door!" The crowd chuckled as Mr. Furley looked a little ashamed. Then he seemed to square his shoulders, hitched his pants up again, and said, "You're darn tootin'! Two girls, far from home, always late on the rent and then this one - " he jerked his thumb at Jack to the crowd's chuckle and Jack looking like a puppy who knocked over a vase " - coming up here on the sly to see you two! Proper single girls don't have a guy without a wedding band on his finger come over. Or a guy with a wedding band over, come to think of it!" The crowd roared.
"But Mr. Furley", Chrissy interrupted vapidly, "YOU don't have a wedding ring on your finger!" The crowds roar of laughter went up the more, while Jack and Janet said in unison, "CHRISSY!" But Mr. Furley just waved that off, as the crowd's laughter subsided. "No, I don't young lady, but for this case, that's okay. Here's all you need to know - if you do it His way, it always works out in the end."
"Who's way?", Chrissy stage whispered to Janet, but while Jack and Janet looked alarmed at her silliness in not knowing who, Mr. Furley was talking about, he just said, "His way. Jesus, your Savior. You believe in Him, don't you?" and Chrissy nodded eagerly and gushed, "Oh, yes, Mr. Furley, my dad was a minister after all!" Mr. Furley said, "That doesn't always mean as much as it should, you did accept Jesus and get baptized, yes?" To which Chrissy nodded again. The crowd murmured approval, a scattered "amen" could be heard from those unseen people, applause briefly was heard.
"Janet", Mr. Furley continued, "I know you're a Christian, I've even seen you at my church before." Janet beamed. Mr. Furley continued, "But not often enough!" and wagged his finger at her while the crowd laughed. "Now", said Mr. Furley, turning towards Jack, "What about you? You a Christian?" "Yes, sir", Jack said. "But not a very good one." He hung his head, the crowd chuckled, but only briefly. "Well, we could all stand to do a bit better, m'boy", Mr. Furley assured him. "How about you stay in my spare bedroom downstairs? That'll cure your homeless status and you can help me with the odd jobs around here till you find a real job!"
The crowd burst into applause. Janet and Chrissy leaped up to kiss Mr. Furley on either cheek, and he squirmed and looked embarrassed but pleased. Nevertheless he wriggled away to the crowds applause and laughter. Jack said, "Mr. Furley, I don't know what to say!" and Mr. Furley said, "Say you'll do all my work for me, just for an old mattress and some burnt toast!" The crowd laughed, so did the girls. "But Mr. Furley", said Jack, looking serious, "That's fine by me, but what of the girls? They're still struggling to pay the rent!"
"Yeah!", Chrissy said, "What are me and Janet supposed to do? Find a real homosexual?" "CHRISSY!", Janet and Jack exclaimed at once, while the unseen audience roared laughter. Mr. Furley just said calmly, "No, Chrissy, I already know who you can have as a roommate here, Janet suggested it earlier as I stood outside your door. There was another who was standing outside your door, and He knocked - will the two of you let Him in?"
Janet nodded humbly. Jack looked happy at the wisdom of that suggestion. Chrissy still looked puzzled. "Oh, Chrissy!", Janet exclaimed, "Mr. Furley means Jesus! Jesus can be let into our heart's and lives, we can follow the advice of Matthew 6:33, and if we do start living a more Christ-centered life, our material problems will lessen!" Mr. Furley nodded in agreement. "For any where on Earth, I have faith that such is true.", he said. "And for my apartment building, I KNOW it to be true!" The crowd applauded.
Chrissy finally got it. She smiled at Jack and Janet. She turned to Janet and said, "I guess we won't be so lonely any more after all." to which Janet asked, "What do you mean, dear?" They all looked at her expectantly and she said, looking up to Heaven, "Well, HE'S company, too!"
The crowd burst into sustained applause, the lights dimmed on the four who could be seen hugging each other.
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