7.12.2013

God sold our house.

I’m actually writing this on June 25th, but today, July 12th, we closed on our house. I have a feeling when the actual house closing date comes, I won’t have a lot of time to write this incredible story and it’s worth sharing. And if I have ever had a story to tell about God’s faithfulness, it’s this one:


[back story]

Last December (2012), I sat in WMU’s annual Week of Prayer for International Missions. I heard missionary after missionary speak about his and her time overseas and spreading the gospel to the unreached. I prayed for these missionaries. I sang the songs. And tears welled up in my eyes as I told God, “Wherever you want us, that’s where I want to be. Here…there…I’m Yours.” And I believe it took years for God to bring me to this place of surrender where I was not defined by a dream or even a calling, but I had come to a point of being His. 

And then it happened. God spoke to my heart and whispered ever so clearly, “Now is the time. Put your house up for sale.”

So what did I do with this ever-so-clear message? Text Jeremy and let him know? Ask my accountability partners to pray with me about this? Tell any human being at all? Nope.

I didn’t do a thing.

I kept it to myself. Why?

Because God’s plans can be scary at times. And we had been in our house for almost 5 years. We had been wanting and praying for God to sell it for the past 3 years. And had different real estate agents tell us that it would. not. sale. End of discussion. They would not even list it.

I wanted to be sure about God telling me we needed to put our house up for sale so I did what any good wife would do and said, “If you really want us to put the house up for sale, make it abundantly clear to BOTH Jeremy and me.”  (I know God laughs at me sometimes.)

And time passed.

We were on our way back from Disney World at the end of February. And we drove because we like road trips and spending uninterrupted time with each other in the car. As we were talking, we discussed our future, and God, and what He was saying to both of us; and then it happened. I finally said, “I know this sounds crazy, but I feel that God wants us to put our house up for sale.” And Jeremy laughed.

Then he said, “I’ve thought that exact same thing. How long have you felt this way?”

And I admitted since December. And he said that in December the Lord also began to prompt him to put it up for sale.

[loss of hope]

If you have ever sold a house before, you know that having the right agent can be a make-it or break-it deal.

At first, we talked with an agent who had sold a couple of houses in our neighborhood. She came to our house, sat down with us, discussed prices, and basically told us what all the other agents had told us: the price you want for the house is too high. No one will walk in your front door to look at the house. Even if someone walks in, they will never offer above X amount of money. Even if they do offer this price, there’s no way it will ever appraise above X amount of money.

Jeremy felt very strongly that the Lord had given him a listing price. He felt that as strongly as he felt that we should be listing it at all. So in a final attempt to sell the house, he asked her, “So if I want you to be our agent and I ask you to list the house at this price, you won’t do it?”

“No. There’s no point.”

[hope restored]

She left. We laughed. Ok, maybe I cried too. And we prayed.

Then, we knew of a man from our church who is a real estate agent. And, just to see if what she was saying was actually true, we called him.

He listened and decided to come to our house.

He looked at the house, sat down with us, went through similar numbers we had heard before, and asked what we wanted to list it for.

And Jeremy and I looked at each other and laughed and told him.

And bless his heart because I know he must have thought we were crazy when I followed that up with, “And I know this sounds funny, but we really believe God said to put the house up for sale. And Jeremy feels strongly that we should start at this price.”

Our agent was honest with us about his concerns, but being the man of faith he is, prayed with us over the house and went outside and put his sign in the yard.

[the not-so-long wait]

About two weeks went by and then someone came to look at the house.

And more people came by and looked at it.

Then a little less than a month went by and my grandfather passed away.

Jeremy was preaching at my grandfather’s funeral that weekend and, while we were standing at the visitation, our agent called Jeremy and told him that the very first people who came to see our house wanted to make an offer on it.

[praise Him]

It’s been a process. If you want to know my honest feelings about this season of us being in the house, you can go back and read this and this and this.

The house did sell for less than the price we asked. But it wasn’t too much less. And it did appraise for less than what we wanted, but again, not too much less. The only way we made up the difference is that the buyer took on some of the cost (again, something that should NEVER happen in this market).

Over the past five years, there have been times of doubt along the way. There have been times of crying. There have been times of anger and confusion and questioning. But oh did our faith in Him grow. And our belief in HIS timing. And our trust in Him.

He is good and He alone is faithful. Late in 2010, I felt the Lord say to me: “My Name is Adonai-jireh and you will get to know this Name well.”

Adonai-jireh means, “the LORD will provide.”

The next week I got a call from WMU offering me a job, a year later Jeremy was offered a job at Riverchase, six months after that the Lord sold our house.

He provides.

[3704]

Jeremy and I secured a townhouse apartment that we will rent for the next year. I’m usually not a numbers person but the day we secured the townhouse, I was driving back to our house thanking God for providing the agent, the buyers, and the townhouse (which happens to be townhouse #3704). And I felt Him say, “Look up what Psalm 37:04 means.” (Anna Floyd, I can see you smiling as you read this.)

So I got out my phone and looked it up and read and laughed and cried:

“Delight yourself in the LORD; and He will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:04).

The thing is: the townhouse is a testimony to the desires of our heart but it is no longer our hearts’ desire. Our hearts’ desire has honestly become to delight ourselves in HIM and He has become the desire of our heart. And this process is a testimony to His faithfulness to us—to pursue us and love us enough to make us completely His no matter what the cost—no matter how long it takes.

[thank you]

Thank you to so many who have walked this journey with us. From the times we complained and cried about being stuck in the house to those who prayed with us for it to sell to our agent who had faith in God’s leading us to those who helped us clean the house when we had the appraisal (Karen Hays) to those who helped us move into our new home (J.T. and Jett Turner, Mitchells, Caldwells, Zack Nichols, Andy Smith, Kyle) to my parents who came down and helped paint our townhouse to those who have just been there and encouraged us and prayed with us and stood by us to make sure we found ourselves in God and not in a location.

Thank you. We love you all and look forward to living closer to our church family as we minister to those around us and pray about where the Lord will lead us next.

To God alone be the glory now and forevermore.

God sold our house.




7.03.2013

the edge of desire: genesis 3

Lately, I’ve started the journey of reading through the Bible in a year. It’s a part of the discipleship program my church is doing and I decided to join in…yeah, let’s not dwell on the fact that I’m late and just praise the fact that I showed up at all.

Today was day 3. Genesis 3 (see that correlation).

I’ve focused a lot of thought and study time into Genesis 3 in the past so the verses are not unfamiliar to me. I was reading through it pretty briskly and (before today), had you asked me to explain the first few verses of Genesis 3 to you, it would have been something to the effect of:

The serpent enters the scene. He’s a crafty fellow.

Serpent: “Did God really say to not eat of that tree or you would die?”
Eve: “Why yes he did.”
Serpent: “Oh, no. You will not surely die, but your eyes will be open and you will be like God.”

Eve takes note of this, eats the fruit, passes it to Adam, he shrugs, eats some too, and their eyes are opened and they realize they’re naked and try to cover themselves as they hide.

End scene.

Now, while there is a lot of good fruit (no pun intended) in this little paraphrase of mine and a few sermons could be made focusing on shame and their sin and pride, there was a key phrase that I missed in my reading. A phrase I have missed for 25 years of my life. And this phrase is key to the text. It’s a central point and I have overlooked it for so long.

Let’s take a look at what the actual Bible says:
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die’” (Genesis 3:1-3).

What does Eve say God said?

Not only that you should not eat of the fruit of the tree, but that you should not touch it.

Don’t touch it.

My Southern translation of that is: There ain’t nothing on that tree that’s good for you.

My other interpretation of that is: RUN! FLEE! Don’t eat it…in fact, don’t touch it. Don’t even look at it for a long time because you will want to touch it because you’re like that being human and wanting to explore things. So don’t do it.

And what does the serpent convince her to do?

That’s right—he takes what she most desires and twists it just enough for her to lower her guard and walk right up to that tree and pick a piece of fruit.

She touched the fruit.

That thing she wanted—desired—longed for—thought of—craved.

I think James speaks to this desire when he writes, “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:14-15).

And what did God say would happen if she touched and ate of the fruit—if she gave in to her desire?

Death would surely come.

But Eve thought it would bring life. I believe that she truly thought that whatever the fruit had would bring her even more completeness.

The fruit was not the issue though. The fruit within itself was not poisonous. It was probably perfectly good and ripe fruit. The issue was that God had commanded them to not eat it—to not even touch it.

“Don’t go there,” He said. “It will bring death because you are choosing the fruit over Me.”

Ouch.

Lately, each time I see an area of my life where I’m not surrendering something to God—where I’m staring at the piece of fruit in my life—I ask: what is my fear in giving this to God?

I believe at the root of most of my sin is a fear of something. For Eve (and for me most of the time), it’s the fear that maybe God is holding out on me. Maybe He isn’t the only thing that could complete me. Maybe this piece of fruit will finally satisfy all my longings, my hope for something greater will finally disappear, and my desire for perfection and completeness and wholeness will be fulfilled.

The danger in this is that it excludes God. It gives power to the fruit and allows my thoughts and motivations and longings and admiration and worship to go to the fruit.

We too easily give power to people or things that will never satisfy us when the only One worthy of this power over us humbled Himself to the point of death on a cross.

Do I actually think that the God Who created me, Who created my being and knows so intricately what will satisfy me and complete me and bring me joy, do I actually think that He doesn’t know what is good for me?

When I stare at the fruit—when those thoughts of something other than God bringing fulfillment to my life come along—that is when I need to remember my Creator. That is when I need to FLEE, RUN, turn around and walk away.

“I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore, choose LIFE…” (Deuteronomy 30:19).

He says if we choose the fruit, we will die. We will be separated. We will be broken. The shame will come. It. will. never. satisfy. We will be left empty. Disappointed. Broken. Naked.

And what is the main thing God wants of us? What is that main commandment? “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30).

If you find yourself staring at your fruit, contemplating what it could do for you, how it could satisfy you, giving it power over you, then turn around.

Because I held my fruit in my hands until my Lord God came along and said, “Child, it will only bring death. And it’s going to be the end of you. Hand Me the fruit.”

May you turn around and run away from the fruit. Don’t touch it. Don’t even look at it. You will always want it. But it will never satisfy.

Run in the other direction. Run toward Eden and paradise and life with God. Walk with Him so closely. And ignore that serpent.


“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).