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Wanna hear a crazy story?
We had a Christmas party for our LifeGroup this past Sunday evening. It was a great time! We have grown to really love our LifeGroup family. When people were arriving, I’m sure, if they haven’t heard our most recent adventure, they saw for the first time the “for sale” sign in our front yard. Yes, that’s right. There’s a “for sale” sign in our front yard.
Someone in our LifeGroup said to us empathetically, “You know, this is the worst time to put your house on the market. I mean the worst time. You’d do better to put it up in the spring.” To which I had to answer, “We know. Isn’t God funny like that?” I’ve thought about how, on a minuscule scale, it reminded me of Noah building an ark before it ever rained. It just makes no human sense. But here’s the story. I share it with you because I want to keep you in the loop for when God does something even we don’t yet know.
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In a nutshell, we are growing out of our home a little. We’ve been here 13 wonderful years but for the past year we’ve been discussing the possibility of getting our 13 and 14 year old into their own rooms. The room they share now is tiny and almost impossible to keep tidy. Not only that, with all the rooms taken up, we are unable to host any family or friends that might want to visit from out-of-town. Also, we’ve hoped for more room to host events (church, LifeGroup, family, etc). Back in the spring we began looking around to see what is available.
For several months we casually looked but didn’t see anything that we felt God leading us to look into further. We took a break in the summer. In September, while praying about direction in the house search, we felt God telling us to put things on pause. The crazy thing is that we both felt prompted toward this on the same day. It felt good to know God was leading and we were content to put it all aside for a while. It’s just so cool when God does stuff like that and we know we can trust it.
Fast forward to three weeks ago…
Three weeks ago yesterday, my mother-in-law told us about a home in her neighborhood that was only a block from where they live and she thought we might want to check out. This was the first talk about looking at a home since we put things on pause in September. At first I thought, “Why even look?” But for some reason I thought that we should. We agreed to go see the home. When we got there, we both felt complete peace that this was not for us. It was a beautiful home. Don’t get me wrong. We just felt God prompting our hearts…”no.”
We were getting ready to leave when the realtor, a friend of ours, asked if we’d like to look at anything else. We hadn’t thought about it and didn’t really have a plan but he suggested a home much closer to where we live now. We were happy about that because we really want to be close to where the new church building will be built. So we went. Surprisingly it was everything we were looking for. We were pleasantly surprised. Mark and I left there and headed to a meeting. Afterward, we talked and wondered if we were supposed to revisit this thought of moving.
We prayed and continued to pray through the evening. The next day, after praying some more, we decided to visit the home again. Again, excitement welled up at the possibilities. So I asked our realtor, “What’s next? I mean, what do we do since we really like this home?” He said, “Well, you have to put your house on the market.”
RECORD SCRATCH…What?!? I’m not sure what I was expecting but since we planned to use our equity for our next home, of course this made complete sense. So why was it so hard to compute?
Isn’t that a huge undertaking? Doesn’t it take time to get things in order to list a house? Wait! Isn’t it December?!?
We prayed. A LOT.
And strangely, we felt God at our backs, pulling at the threads, and moving us with each step. It’s like He was saying, “Do this now.” I felt complete peace even as I went through the process of getting the house ready to list. It seemed simple to stage and shoot the pictures and I was surprised at how quickly I did it. Things were happening at lighting speed. We saw the house for sale on Tuesday. We listed our home Saturday of the same week. And we had a peace that passes understanding. I called our daughter Abby Sunday night and said, “Hey, you’re not gonna believe this…” Abby is so easy going, she actually found it humorous. It’s definitely not the first crazy thing we’ve ever done.
We did all the things that were set before us. And when I started to worry about this or that in our home (feeling tempted to try to make things as close to perfect as possible) I felt God impressing on me not to worry so much about it – just to do what was put before me the best I could and not fret.
During that week in my morning quiet time, I was praying about the whole situation and felt God impressing on my heart that this plan was not going to be “cut and dry.” There would be hurdles. I thought, “Okay, God. That’s fine. You are with us. We feel your lead. It might take time. I’m good with that.” Through more than a handful of confirmations, we felt God’s delight in our obedience. We continued to feel God say, “This is the way. Walk in it.” Your own ears will hear him. Right behind you a voice will say, “This is the way you should go,” whether to the right or to the left. Isaiah 30:21
Monday morning of week two, after the buzz and chaos of the previous week, things were quiet. I mean really quiet.
We placed an offer on the house (a contingency offer – which the seller did not want to agree to). Our offer was denied.
Okay, that was to be expected. No problem. We came back with a counter offer and they rejected that as well. “Uh, God? Do you see this?”
Tuesday was quiet and Wednesday. Thursday I started to squirm a little. “God, are You there? What great adventure do you have for us today? This doesn’t seem to be going at all as I thought it would.”
“What about the confirmations You poured on us last week?”
I fought discouragement. I mean, who wants to put their house up for sale just before Christmas? Why did nothing make sense?
That VERY MORNING, God turned my attention to a devotional I often read – Streams In The Desert. This was His message to me that very day…
Ye shall not see wind, neither shall ye see rain; yet that valley shall be filled with water, that ye may drink, both ye, and your cattle, and your beasts. And this is but a light thing in the sight of the Lord: he will deliver the Moabites also into your hands” (2 Kings 3:16-18).
To human thinking it was simply impossible, but nothing is hard for God. Without a sound or sign, from sources invisible and apparently impossible, the floods came stealing in all night long; and when the morning dawned, those ditches were flooded with the crystal waters, and reflecting the rays of the morning sun from the red hills of Edom.
Our unbelief is always wanting some outward sign. The religion of many is largely sensational, and they are not satisfied of its genuineness without manifestations, etc.; but the greatest triumph of faith is to be still and know that He is God.
The great victory of faith is to stand before some impassable Red Sea, and hear the Master say, “Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord,” and “Move On!” As we step out without any sign or sound–not a wave-splash–and wetting our very feet as we take the first step into its waters, still marching on we shall see the sea divide and the pathway open through the very midst of the waters.
If we have seen the miraculous workings of God in some marvelous case of healing or some extraordinary providential deliverance, I am sure the thing that has impressed us most has been the quietness with which it was all done, the absence of everything spectacular and sensational, and the utter sense of nothingness which came to us as we stood in the presence of this mighty God and felt how easy, it was for Him to do it all without the faintest effort on His part or the slightest help on ours.
It is not the part of faith to question, but to obey. The ditches were made, and the water came pouring in from some supernatural source. What a lesson for our faith!
Are you craving a spiritual blessing? Open the trenches, and God will fill them. And this, too, in the most unexpected places and in the most unexpected ways. Oh, for that faith that can act by faith and not by sight, and expect God to work although we see no wind or rain.
–A. B. Simpson
Friends! Talk about a shot in the arm! “God, forgive me for doubting! I’ll dig the ditches!’
I shared the devotional with Mark and his heart too was encouraged immensely.
Since this adventure began, God has been aligning our hearts with His through prayer and the Word. We’ve come to realize that perhaps God may not be moving us to that particular home. Perhaps He has something else in mind. We acknowledge that we don’t know. We have learned not to bank on circumstances. Just to trust God to lead. We have faith that His path is best. I can honestly say, if that home does not become ours, it’s okay by me. I have no demands for God. I am simply going to wait and watch what He is doing.
So we are in “the waiting”. Think of all the people in the Bible who waited on God. Its our turn. I’m sharing this personal story with you because I believe with all my heart that God is up to something. I look forward to when I can share that with you. Just this morning I read something that moved me in E. M. Bounds “The Complete Works.”
It says,
“If our petitions are in accordance with His will, and if we seek His glory in asking, the answers will come in way that will astonish us and fill our hearts with songs of thanksgiving.”
This waiting includes daily struggles to keep the house clean, even though we’ve only had one couple come through in the past several weeks. (Have you tried to keep your house clean with 4 teenagers 24/7?)
This waiting means I don’t pull out every Christmas decoration we own and put it on display.
This waiting means we must be ready at any moment to have our home be seen and that my three cats might need to take a trip in the car with me. (TRUST ME – THAT’S AN ADVENTURE).
But waiting with God, amidst the inconveniences has been a place of perfect peace. God has been giving my family memorable moments and this whole story has been an opportunity for my children to see what it looks like when our plans are in His hands. I find the only time I am anxious is when I’m looking ahead and trying to figure things out. It’s then that God reminds me He gives grace for the day.
Someone asked me the other day, “How’s the house hunting going?” I think a better question might have been “How’s the waiting going?”
God is growing us. He is increasing our faith. Every detail of this story is in His hands. We stand ready for our assignment each day. Even if it’s to wait.
stay tuned…
