It’s Time to Tell Our Story

It’s time to tell our story, before we know the end of it. Time, that precious commodity, is running out. People who know our situation keep inquiring. In July, we moved to Vermont for 6 months because we had just sold our house and needed a place to live while we waited for our new house in Colorado Springs to be built. One month after we arrived at my mom’s house, Ron lost his job. These last 5 months have not gone according to plan at all. Not, at all.

In order to shed light on where we are at now, I need to tell the story about our last house. After almost 20 years of marriage, we were on the verge of being able to close on our very first home. At the end of our final walkthrough, our real estate agent, Cat, turned to us and said, “I really hate to tell you guys this, but you will not get this house without a miracle.” Our appraiser had really “messed things up,” looking at our offer of 12K less than what we and the bank had come to an agreement on. We didn’t know it, but the owner’s bank had not settled the paperwork. It would take at least 2 business days to do so, but we were out of time because our paperwork would run out at the end of business that day. It was impossible.

So, we hopped in our car, pulled over just a little bit from the house and prayed, “Lord, Cat said it would take a miracle to get this house. If you want us to have this house, then You’ll need to do something about it. If this isn’t our house, show us what the next step is.”

A couple of hours later, Cat called and said, “You won’t believe it! Can you be at your signing in 1 1/2 hours?” After the paperwork was done, and the house was ours, it was my turn to look at the real estate agent and say something. “Cat, you told us it would be a miracle if we got the house. I want you to know we prayed for that miracle if God wanted us to have it.” With tears in her eyes, she said, “Will you pray for me?” We’ve been doing that for these past four years.

It’s time to say it again. It will take a miracle for us to close on the house we’ve been hoping was really ours. But, it won’t be because we did anything to get it, or because we’re lucky or because things go right for us. It’ll be because God has a story to tell. And if we don’t get the house, it will be because there is no story in that particular house.

I don’t think we would have closed on our first house if Cat hadn’t mentioned needing a miracle. I think there was probably some other house that would have worked just fine for us. Another house in another neighborhood that would have also been a good financial move for us. I strongly believe we were in that house for Cat. For her story. I look back over the last 4 years in that house and can see no other reason why that house and not another house.

And, it will be the same now. Why? Because we’ve given God permission to do what He wants with our story so that He can tell His.

Will I be disappointed? Sure. Have I had days of struggling to find contentment in any situation? Have I been tempted to give into depression, to anger, to despair? You bet. But, I’ve chosen those things before, along with stress, anxiety, worry, fear. And, it never went so well for me. So this time around, I’m holding onto the truths I write about, the truths I say are true. I’ve had to ask myself, “Do you really believe what you write? That God cares? That God sees? That God has only good for you?” (Thanks, Mary Ann, my dear friend, for reminding me of that last truth.) Yes, I do.

Today is exactly one month from the day we are supposed to do our final walk through, and a week later, we have a closing date. For some strange reason, neither our builder or our lender has called the whole thing off, though they know Ron is without a job and, therefore, without the means to secure a mortgage. God is silent too. Nothing is happening. Nothing. I know, I know. Nothing we can see. But that is the point isn’t it? Faith is without sight. And without sight, boy, is it difficult to navigate a minefield.

Last night as we were falling asleep, I started talking about our last house story, and how our current story is playing out. One really cool thing that I didn’t mention is that we chose to ask Cat to be our real estate agent on both the sale of our last house and on the purchase of this next one. God isn’t finished weaving our two stories together. I’m excited to see what will happen!

I also realized that up until now, I’ve viewed what has happened in my life as being about me. And, pretty much the universe has spun around my little head. But, not now. God put us in the last house because He wanted to show something to someone else. And, if He puts us in this house, it will be for the same reason. If He doesn’t, there wasn’t a story there. The story is somewhere else.