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Do you know those phrases that are often said as a means of comfort or encouragement that don't seem very helpful when you're in the middle or your crisis? How about "Let go and let God"... while this is very true, it is sometimes easier said than done. Here's another... "God won't give you more than you can handle". YES, this is very true... Biblical in fact, but still when you're at the edge of your rope, it can be difficult to believe when you already feel like you are past the point of being able to handle what you are dealing with. Well, Kelly and I are coming out of the back side of a few months where the phrase "Delay doesn't mean denial" was often heard. I know this phrase is true... I've heard it a countless number of
times... I've even said it to other people! However, when you're in
the middle of that waiting period, it's a hard phrase to grab a hold of.
As Kelly and I have committed to being a part of this work at Church52, we decided to sell our home in Carmel and move to New Palestine. We had taken the time to really pray about this decision and discuss it together. We knew this was the right thing for us to do. It was a difficult decision as we had a great home in Carmel that we loved... great schools for the kids, etc. However, we knew that it was just a house. The ministry that God has for us to do is more important than the physical structure we live in. So we took the dive and put the house up for sale. We expected and believed that as we were doing this mainly due to ministry that God would bless our actions and cause the house to sell quickly. Our previous home selling experiences had all went very well and sold fairly quickly. Well, that wasn't the case this time.
We had hoped to sell the house and get moved in time for the 08-09 school year so the kids would be able to switch schools at the easiest point in the year. While we had decent traffic on the home, that did not happen. What was worse was that once school started, the traffic dropped off and we felt like we were going to be stuck there. Of course the housing market in the US is currently not good for selling a house. As time went on, we would only get more discouraged as our realtor kept telling us how home values were dropping month by month and that we'd probably have to take a loss on the house. For those who have sold a house before, you know that once that sign is in the yard, it's not really your house anymore. You are continually trying to keep the house ready for other people to come see it... staging things according to what a buyer would want to see... not what YOU actually would want. There were days when we thought about just pulling out the sign and staying put. On those days, we had to encourage each other and remind ourselves of what we knew God wanted us to do. While we didn't understand why God wasn't helping us out, we stayed on the ride.
When you are in the middle of a waiting period like that, it is easy to think that God is not working on your behalf, but the reality is that His timing is just different than yours! We had found a couple of homes that we wanted to purchase, but we lost the opportunity as other people moved in and bought them before we had the chance. We couldn't make the move without having a buyer on the other house. That was also difficult as it APPEARED that God wasn't helping us to get the houses that we really liked. It APPEARED that we would probably end up getting a "leftover" house IF the house in Carmel would even sell in the first place! Was there a delay? Yes. Were we being denied God's blessing? No. It may have felt like we were being denied at times, but as we look back on the last few months now, we can see that God had everything worked out.
A house in New Pal came on the market recently that was not even for sale when we started this process. We found the house and quickly fell in love with it. Soon after, the house in Carmel finally sold and for the price that we needed! The realtor was telling us that we would not get the number we needed, but we knew that God was able to make it happen and He did. We are now in the transition process of moving. We are not in the new house yet, but everything is in place and ready... just waiting to close! While it looked like we were going to take a loss on the finances AND the quality of home and neighborhood, that is NOT how it ended up.
This process lasted a lot longer than we had hoped, but we were not denied! God made a way... He provided... He answered the prayers... He worked it out in HIS TIMING and put us in a place beyond what we even expected or hoped for. So take this as a testimony and an encourgement today. If you are in that waiting process, praying and believing for God to come through in your situation, just hang on and keep doing what you believe He is directing you to do. He WILL come through... everytime! He is FAITHFUL!
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perry meade
