Recently, a friend of mine, who was searching for a new home, had the most blissful home-buying experience. On the first day looking at homes, when she drove through a neighborhood she loved, this friend spotted the house of her dreams. A“ for sale” sign was in the front yard. She scheduled a visit. She put in an offer. And that was that. # HappilyEverAfter.
While I was thrilled for her, that has not been an experience my husband Val and I have had with home ownership. In fact, during our three decades of marriage, Val and I have lived in eighteen homes. Some we rented. Some we owned. Most recently we sold a home we’ d loved and were searching for one in a new city. time I heard it— from other well-meaning family and friends— I wanted to ring the neck of the loved one who was so certain there was something better for us.
Maybe the disappointments you’ ve endured weren’ t home-related at all. Maybe you’ ve been working to improve your fitness, but aren’ t making the progress you want, and are feeling incredibly frustrated. Or maybe you hustled hard at work, putting in overtime to earn that promotion, and someone else got it, leaving you feeling wildly discouraged. Or perhaps you’ ve been in a marriage that’ s been difficult for years, and you’ re feeling exhausted and out of gas. If you’ ve felt stuck, and weary, I get it.
Okay— this is where it starts to go south. We put an offer on a home we loved, and were outbid. We lost the house. Then we put an offer on a second home we loved, and the competing bidder offered the seller cash. So we lost the house. I’ m going to spare you the rest of the messy details, but I will say that this happened seven times in a row. That’ s right, we lost out on seven homes that we bid on. To say we were disappointed would be an understatement.
After we lost that seventh home, I was losing hope.“ Maybe,” I reasoned,“ God doesn’ t want us to move to the new city, after all. Maybe it’ s not the plan we thought God had showed us.” When we can’ t see clearly, we try to fill in the gaps with our human logic.
I guess that last relationship wasn’ t the person I was supposed to marry.
Maybe God doesn’ t want us to have children.
“ You know,” a well-meaning friend offered, when I told her about our experience,“ it just means there’ s something better coming.”
I’ m not even going to act super-spiritual and pretend like that wasn’ t the most annoying thing I’ d ever heard. Nope. In fact, the third
I thought the Lord had told me to start the business, but I could have been wrong.
We try to make sense of what doesn’ t make sense.
As the house hunting process dragged on, I
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