A Tale of Two Houses
Once upon a time (in 2007), I bought a little town-home in beautiful Harrisonburg, VA. I bought it with my best friend and the Lord blessed us there. Just two single ladies, teaching kids, driving our matching Altimas and living life. Then we both started dating the men of our dreams, got married, and each had a kid all within a two year time span. In case you were wondering, we did not continue to live in that townhouse together with spouses and children. Though it was joked about a time or two.
Jonathan and I settled in the Hburg home and raised both of our babies there. Fast forward to present. We found ourselves knowing that God was moving us to Manassas, but we still had this house to consider. After many discussions and much prayer we decided that we would pursue the option of renting out our house. (More on that in a bit)
On the other end, Jonathan and I started looking for a place to live somewhere outside of Manassas. I was ready for a new home, so even though the idea of moving away from Harrisonburg was hard, I was excited to look at houses. We looked at a few places in December and discovered very quickly how much the rise in cost of living was going to affect us. It would be very challenging to pay rent on any place if I went for very long without a job. Ever since we had our first son I had been able to work part time and still be home with the boys. The desire of my heart was that I could find a similar situation in our new community. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust is like a muscle, it is only strengthened when it is exercised.
Every January 1st, I reflect on all that God has done in the previous year and then I write down prayers that I have for the coming year. My prayers for the year are not always super specific, but this year was different. I decided to pray in some very specific ways for our family.
I want to share three of my written prayers for 2015 with you. These are specific prayers I believe that God impressed upon my heart. They are also prayers for things that I believed to be on the very edge of possible. These are the prayers as I wrote them in my journal:
1) For a home near Manassas that has a fenced in backyard and three bedrooms, and a nice kitchen.
2) For a renter for our house in Harrisonburg that exceeds our expectations, that we can trust.
3) For a job for me that allows me to still be present with my boys. For a safe place for Micah that will help him to develop Godly character and for a school for Evan that meets his social and academic needs. (I’ll share more about this one in my next post)
Back to the story of our little townhouse. Because I was the one living in the house, I realized pretty quickly that if I wanted to find a good tenant I needed to learn how to be a good landlord. I read articles, blogs, and talked with other landlords I knew. It seemed as if everyone I knew had a horror story about someone who knew someone else who had a terrible tenant. The process did not involve much encouragement. Yet, through a lot of hard work we did end up connecting with a fabulous tenant who signed lease papers the first week of March and moved in at the beginning of April.
In the meantime, we had been hunting for a house that would meet our family’s needs. Our price range for a rental, though much higher than any number I've ever thought I would spend on rent, was still much lower than most of the nice houses in the area – even townhouses. It seemed that, everything we looked at was either smaller than our current town home or really run down.
From the beginning of our search I had a running list in my head of the absolute “must haves” and then a list of “these would be really nice to have”. Remember that my prayer was for: a fenced backyard (really just a flat backyard would do), a nice kitchen (My definition of “nice”, after seeing some of rental properties, required a kitchen with a full stove and refrigerator, basically something I could actually use for cooking), and three bedrooms. My desire for the third bedroom was that we would have a place where friends and family would be able to come visit and feel like they have their own space to rest and relax while in our home. Towards the end of March we were still struggling to find anything that met our needs much less our hopes.
Our renter was set to move in the last weekend in March and we did not have a place to move. The backup plan was that the boys and I would move in with my Mom and Dad for an indefinite period of time. Let it be known that I have awesome parents.
So, here is what happened:
The week that we were set to sign the lease with our tenant, Jonathan got a call from a connection at work. He was put in touch with a mutual connection from his old company who owned this house near Manassas and was looking for a renter. Jonathan went to see the house and came home with photos, video footage, the works, for me to assess. We sat on the couch on a Friday night and I looked at the images with mouth agape. My response? “There is absolutely NO way we could afford a place that nice.” When Jonathan told me the rent that was being discussed (within our budget), I was overwhelmed by it all. The Lord was giving us a place to move that far surpassed ALL my hopes.
I’m sure many would say, Wow what amazing coincidence/connection/networking/fill in the blank… but I would call this happening a miracle. So much so that we signed a lease before I had ever seen the house in person. You know, I had secret hopes that I didn't write down. Things that I would say to God in the silent of the night. Things like:
“It would be awesome to be far enough outside of the city that I won't have to mess with all the traffic if I don't want to.”
“I really want a big yard where the boys can run and play.”
“Sigh… I would LOVE to have an art studio space again.”
“A fireplace would be so cool!”
Now let’s get something straight. I do not think that God’s blessings come only in the form of extravagant provision, as this story might suggest. I do think that blessings also come in challenging times, in the form of raindrops as one of my favorite Laura Story songs, Blessings, beautifully expresses. In this case though, I think that God wanted to demonstrate to me, His heart expressed in Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians:
“I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen!”
He IS able to do immeasurably more than ALL we ask or imagine. This house where I’m living today is proof that God heard even the hopes that I didn't say out loud. To Him be the Glory, forever and EVER!
Now, excuse me I'm going to go get to work in my art studio. ;)