The Beautiful Road to Nowhere
We have all heard it said that "Experience is the best teacher." That statement has been proven in my life many times. This week has been no exception. My husband and I have been house hunting. It has been an exciting and sometimes tiresome adventure. This past weekend we looked at eight different properties. Just when we were about to give up, we pulled into the driveway of the last one. Wow, it was so cute. It was a beautiful, well-manicured one and one-half acres. There were established and newly planted trees on it. It had a wonderful front porch and a huge back patio. Half of the lot was fenced in. The price was incredible compared to the previous properties we viewed.
We made an offer. We thought, "Praise God we finally found it." We even sent pictures of it to our sons and a couple of friends. We waited excitedly to hear back from our Realtor as to if the sellers had accepted our offer. Later on the next day, we got a phone call.." counter-offer." My husband and I sat down at our dining room table and looked everything over. The counter-offer was reasonable but a little higher than we wanted to spend. We looked over our finances. It could be possible to buy the property; after all, it was still priced lower than we had actually been prequalified for. But there was just something that didn't feel right. We held hands, bowed our heads, and my husband led us in prayer. After prayer, we looked at each other and said, "This isn't the one." We decided to wait until the afternoon of the following day to call our Realtor back. We wanted to be doubly sure we were making the right decision. My husband left for work the next day, and I spent some quiet time in prayer. The more I prayed, the more I knew that this wasn't the home for us. In my heart, I kept hearing the Lord say, "Don't go back to Hackamore Road."
In 2003 we were in a dark place in our lives. My husband had resigned his position at the ministry we came to Oklahoma to be a part of. We were totally out of God's will and sinking fast. One month after resigning that position, we were asked to vacate the home we were living in. Some "friends" had rented us a cute double-wide trailer on five acres in a beautiful rural community. We were renting with a verbal agreement of the option to buy. But our resignation seemed to have altered the deal. I will never forget that gut-wrenching day when we had to tell our sons we had to move. Tears ran down their cheeks like rain. They loved that place.
We moved from the country to a very undesirable place in the city. We stayed there for a few short months until we found this cute little home on Hackamore Road. It was a small home on an acre and was only a couple of years old. I always called it my "pretty house" because it was the most attractive home we had ever lived in. It had an open floor plan, and the living room had a wall of windows that overlooked a pond and a field. Every night we watched the sunset over that field. In fact, there are a couple of photos on jehovahsgardener.com that feature that property. But there was a catch; the property was priced at the very tip-top of our budget. In a perfect world, we could make the monthly payment. The problem is we do not live in a perfect world.
We also moved into that home without praying about it, which made a perfect recipe for disaster. We made our monthly payments for about the first three or four months, but we were consistently late after that.
Like a vortex, late payments and unexpected expenses were followed by two attacks on my husband's health that left him unable to work. Finally, a notice came knocking on our door. It was a summons for a court date. We found ourselves standing in the middle of a crowded courtroom, and a judge said, "be out in three days." To add insult to injury, we had a rare snowstorm in Oklahoma.
Even in our darkest hour, the Lord was there with us. He didn't cause our heartbreak; we did by our own choosing. But the Lord was there to give us a way out. That is Who He is. That is What He does. A friend rented us a little home in a small town. It was much smaller, old and in need of repair and a good cleaning. But it was less than half the monthly payment we were attempting to make at Hackamore Road. That little older home helped get us back on our feet.
We spent six years out of God's will. Interestingly, the number six in the Bible is associated with man. My husband has been back at the ministry for seven years now. The number seven in the Bible is associated with completion. I give God all the glory today in this statement: today, we are debt-free, healthy, happy, and all of our children love and serve God.
”…He believed in God, who gives life to the dead and calls things into existence that do not exist." Romans 4:17
Today is a day of rejoicing and triumph in our lives, not because we have a new home to move into today. But, because we know we have one. We do not see it with our physical eyes. We see it by faith. And we see it just as sure as if the key to the front door was our hands.
The blogs I write are simply letters to my family. You, my friends, are my brothers and sisters in Christ. No matter who we are or where we are from, we are part of an extensive family. We all face things in our lives. Sometimes tragic, sometimes wondrous. My goal is simply to encourage you not to give up. God is faithful. He has not lost your address. He will not and cannot forget you. He died for you. Focus on Him. Strive to know Him better today than yesterday. You may be on a Hackamore Road of your own. Be of good courage, you don't have to stay there. Knock on the door of heaven. He's there waiting to open it to you. Our best days are yet to come!
"..and be satisfied with your present [circumstances and with what you have]; for He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! Assuredly not!]" Hebrews 13:5 (AMP)