I tend to expect the Lord to work in big ways.
And He does. But a majority of the time I don’t recognize it.Being fresh college graduates, my husband and I have been in dream mode. We are looking for the perfect house, the perfect job, the perfect car, etc. And we dream about them. Literally. Almost every night.
Recently a house just a couple blocks from us was put on the market. We went and looked at it a couple weeks ago and sure enough, it's the perfect house. Garrett and I both came across the perfect jobs that happened to be hiring and applied for them. The thing about everything being perfect is that makes everything a long-shot, and yet it raises our hopes to potentially heart-breakable levels.
Sunday night we decided that we would fast the next day. We supplicated with the Lord to make all our dreams come true. We reasoned with Him too, just to make sure He knew that with great jobs and a home we could raise a family, and really it is the best thing for everybody, and that even though we are not in a particularly great position to be buying a home at this time, if He would just help us out a little bit we can make it work.
We started our fast Sunday night. Monday morning I was the hungriest I have ever been in the morning. I ended up calling in sick to work. Which left me in a house full of food and water taunting me. Around 10am I received a text from the Realtor: “Good morning Garrett & Brittany. Please call me at your earliest convenience. I have two other offers on your cute little house on Westminster. We should get together and draft your offer ASAP…”
My heart sunk. The tears rolled in. This house had been on the market for 7 months, with no offers. Now there were 2 in the same day! All I could think about was acting fast. We need to call our lender, find our tax forms, send in all of our information for a loan…
We ended up meeting with the Realtor at lunch the next day to talk and write up our offer. The meeting was supposed to take a half hour, but it took two. We had a lot of questions, the realtor had even more. We left planning on getting everything in order that night so we could write up an offer the next day. Something happened though. In the stress and the rush to get things done so that we can get our dream house both Garrett and I felt oddly calm when we got in the car after that two hour meeting. But not calm because we knew our dream on this house would come true. Calm because we knew it wouldn't come true. But that that was okay. We decided to pass on the house. And that was okay too.
It wasn't until the next day that I realized the Lord's hand had played a role. We might never know why things played out the way they did. But we know that it played out the way it was supposed to. That house, our dream house, was not for us. Not right now.
We learned a whole lot in the process, about finances and house buying (we had no idea how much there was to it). And when we are in a better spot to buy our dream house, because there will most definitely be more dream houses, we will be ready.
I am so thankful that we had fasted the day before, that we were worthy to have the guidance of the holy spirit in our lives and that we were able to walk away from something that I thought was perfect for us and our future family and find comfort in knowing that the Lord has something better in store for us.
Oh, and the job I applied for? They just offered me the job yesterday. We are still waiting to hear about Garrett's dream job, but we know that whatever happens will be for the best, the Lord is watching out for us.
- submitted by Brittany and Garrett Sherwood
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