Brad couldn’t remember a time when life had been better. He loved his job and he was one of the top performers in his zone. He was incredibly excited about his family: his little girl was continuously amazing him and his wife, Anne, shared a love and faith for God with him.

Brad and Anne had placed membership with a new congregation and the love of their brothers and sisters in Christ was evident through the welcome visits and the encouraging cards they received during the first month with this new family. 
Knowing he was nervous, Anne persuaded Brad to attend the men's Spring Retreat. He knew this would be a great opportunity to participate in fellowship and meet some of the men of the congregation, but not knowing anyone caused some doubt.

That first evening, Brad's nervousness was soon overcome and he opened up easily with several of the men. Brad was among a few men discussing their jobs. Brad had shared his background as a Special Investigator for a homeowner's insurance provider and how much he loved the type of work he was doing.

As the evening was winding down, Brad was pulled aside by one of the men who had shared some devotional thoughts regarding Christian Leadership. Brad remembered his name was Gary and he had a reputation among the congregation as a man who led by example. Gary welcomed Brad to the retreat and expressed how happy he was that Brad was a part of their congregation. During the course of the conversation, Gary stated he understood that Brad had a background with insurance claims. Brad said he did and that he had been doing this for about seven years. Brad shared a few of the funnier details of losses he had helped investigate and Gary laughed.

Gary explained he knew a guy that had spilled hot fire ashes from the fireplace on his carpet and his insurance company had paid to replace the damaged carpet just because of the burn spots.

Brad explained that this generally would be a covered loss with most homeowners insurance. He recalled a time when a customer had supposedly walked through her home with a bleach container with a hole in it that damaged most of the carpet throughout the home and the policy provided coverage for this damage. Gary laughed and commented that there were certainly some unusual circumstances that could cause damage in a home.

A few weeks later, Brad’s co-worker, Bill, brought him a claim to investigate. Bill – an atheist for whom Brad often prayed – was laughing about the audacity of one his customers to actually use his Christian background and his reputation in his church to support his claim for damages. The customer's wife supposedly brought home a leaky bottle of bleach she had bought. Her husband claimed she didn't realize there was a pinhole-sized leak spraying from the container as she walked though the living room, down the hall and up the stairs. She had gone into their bedroom to put up a few items and then to the laundry room where she placed the bleach on the shelf and then discovered it was leaking. When she retraced her path, she found the color had already been bleached from the carpet in the majority of the home. Her husband was submitting the claim to have their carpet replaced.

Brad shook his head. He explained he disagreed with anyone who felt they had to use their Christianity as a means to persuade others they were honest. Bill just shook his head. He told Brad this customer had to be lying, but he was going to have pay the claim because there was no way to prove the damage wasn’t accidental. This was along Brad's line of work. He told Bill to provide him with the claim information and he would look into as much as he could. When Brad received the claim information he saw that the customer was Gary - the man he had met at the men's retreat. 


SCRIPTURAL POINTS OF LIGHT

Luke 16: 10-11; Proverbs 12:3; Psalm 15: 1-5; Genesis 43: 12-13; Proverbs 19:1; Galatians 6:1