You can't run away

In my last post I told how we bought a house, convinced that it was God’s plan for us, but that it was not plain sailing all the way. There were problems with neighbours, damp, and so on.

We quickly became discouraged.

I told how the value of the house was not so much in the house and the neighbourhood, but more in the relationships developed while we were there. We didn’t appreciate this at the time. There was a Methodist church literally at the next corner, where our children went to the Mums and Toddlers Group. Like many Methodist churches, the true gospel originally preached by their founder Wesley had been largely diluted, but the minister was still a sound Christian and did his best to overcome the tide. It’s sad that so many people have turned Christianity into ”being-nice-ianity”, holding a form of godliness but denying its power. But that minister was good and preached a much sounder gospel than his congregation could handle. More to the point, through the kids work we got in touch not only with him but other good Christians too, and also had evangelistic opportunities with the other mums.

We were also close to the Elim Pentecostal church, which had an excellent pre-school group which exceeded all government standards. It’s leader was a nearby neighbour, about whom we were told “All her carpets are threadbare because she gives all her money to the church”. God has noted her sacrifice! That group was responsible for my children’s early education, both Spiritual and secular.

But we didn’t fully appreciate these things, and going to bed every night looking at a damp ceiling that no builder seemed able to fix, we soon became disheartened and put the house on the market after a year.

The trouble is, we needed to learn two lessons.

1) God will stick to his own agenda. He had put us in that house – he wasn’t about to move us out!
2) You can’t run away from problems. The only successful path is through them.

So we put the house on the market. Four years later, we were still waiting.

Finally, we agreed a price with some buyers. Jubilation! We testified to the goodness of God in church. Then the buyers pulled out of the deal.

We were so messed up that my wife could not go to church for two weeks. I went, forcing myself to sing praise through gritted teeth.

But then another buyer came, and this time the sale went through and we moved to a bigger, nicer house and a much smarter neighbourhood.

When God’s time is right, it all falls into place, doesn’t it?