Most humans hate change. If you’ve ever had a cat you may have noticed they don’t like change either. Yet there are times when change is necessary. Required. And there are seasons in life where change is like a rhinoceros stampede and all you can do is run like mad to stay in front of it.
The past few years have been a rhinoceros stampede. I finally had to stop running and get over to the side to let the thing pass. And perhaps, just possibly, hopefully even, the last rhino may be approaching. This one is different though, it’s my own ‘pet’ rhino. Oh who am I fooling anyway, change really is a part of life. But sweeping stampedes of change typically don’t seem to happen very often. GOD be praised for that!
So this last one, the pet, has been in the desert waiting to run for a few years now. It’s ‘the move’ my wife and I have hoped and waited for now for some time. One I had often dreamed of dating back 20 years or more. A move taking us out of big city life and in to a small community nestled in tree covered hills. Just writing that last line brings to mind the song Three Dog Night did so well; “Out In The Country”.
Life On Display
Thousands of people are doing it every day. Selling a home while they are living in it. What a challenge. First there’s the prep period. Where someone walks through your home and tells you everything that’s wrong. Paint this, replace that, get rid of those. Depending on the list you could be in for weeks of living in a construction zone. Then you put it on the market. Suddenly your home has become a museum with total strangers wandering through it at all hours of the day. You can’t live. Not really. Every flat surface closely monitored for specks of dust. Every water portal in the home (of which there are many) requires constant wiping after use. No one lives like that. Fortunately that part of the process lasted less than 2 weeks as homes where we live sell faster than ice water in hell.
Unfortunately it sold fast. Before we could find a home to buy in fact. Right. You may be asking who in their right mind puts their house on the market without having one to go to? We’re told people do this all the time. Yet it doesn’t seem too bright to my way of thinking, and in fact I’ve never done that before. Why this time is because as people of faith, we do try our best to listen to that small inner voice, and we both, separately of one another, felt we were being led to sell now. So we did, and it did, and now what?
Best Laid Plans
You see our plan was to find a home, purchase it with funds from selling my previous home, fix it up, move in, and then list this one. However if you are a person of faith you know all too well our best laid plans are not always GOD’s plan for us. We had spent the better part of 2 years (yes that’s right) searching for our perfect place. We had always thought it would be in this one small town not too far away that we have loved for years. However there were some changes taking place in the town that we felt ruined the peace of the community and decided it was no longer for us. So we began taking trips to neighboring states to search for our new home. Nothing. Oh there were really nice homes, but somehow we didn’t feel drawn to any of the areas we visited. In spite of the changes we didn’t like, we still felt drawn to that one nice little town.
What is it about that town? It’s a really special place for us. I believe there’s an energy there. It seems very much like a place GOD has blessed. Every time we visit we feel a peace, a calm, re-energized. In fact on one cold February day we were there walking around and I asked my then girlfriend to sit down on a bench in front of a church, and proposed. Almost immediately it began to snow, those big, soft flakes. It was idyllic. Hollywood couldn’t have done better. It’s a special place.
So about the time we felt we were being led to sell our home, we also felt we needed to stop looking out of state and changed to searching again in that town and surrounding area.
Worse Than Brain Surgery
Do you know panic sets in when you’ve sold your home and have no where to go? As a member of the graduating class of brain surgery patients, I can tell you this situation seemed far more out-of-control than facing brain surgery.
Fortunately, the process of selling our home hit a snag that delayed everything by about 10 days. Now most people wouldn’t have seen this as fortunate, especially considering it cost us about $4,500 in the end. But when it’s time to start packing to move out and you have no place to move in to, this was a welcome respite. It was during that time we found a house. It’s a nice place that’s move-in ready, which at this point is a huge bonus. It was a bit above what we wanted to spend, and a compromise on some of the features we hoped for, but it’s close to our dream town and in a great location. Our prayer had been that GOD would move in all aspects of the situation and put us were we need to be, in the home we need to be in, and move on the owner of our new home-to-be to list it so we could buy it. This home had been on the market previously for $29,000 more than we are buying it for. We had never seen it because we weren’t looking in that price range. During that 10 day pause in the sale of our home, the owner re-listed in a price range we’d see, and we were the 2nd showing of 6 in the first week. In spite of other potential offers and a lot of interest, she accepted our offer of a bit less than list. Luck? Or GOD? I know what I believe. Answered prayer.
So this long meandering tale serves mainly 2 purposes. Most importantly, GOD moves in our lives daily. He does answer prayer. You just need to allow Him to takes the reins and steer your path. Once you do, things come together far better than you could do for yourself. And often times leaving you smiling and amused at the fun ‘coincidences’. Secondly, this is to say I’ve been a tad busy these past few months so haven’t been writing as a result.
When do we move? That’s a fun ‘coincidence’. We’re scheduled to take possession 2 years to the day after my brain surgery.
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