The last couple of days have been eye-opening for us (what's new?). Two days ago Daphne and I took a long, slippery walk in the snow to talk and pray through the situation with the house we want to buy. The bank had already rejected our loan application due to my new, self-employed status (they want to see two years of history with a steady income before granting a loan). I could have pushed the issue by asking for an extension in the closing date and try to find another lender. However, after we took time to talk and pray we both came to the same conclusion: we should let the house go, and trust God for a house in His time and His way. After all, if I manage to finagle my own solution, we would always wonder whether we'd been following the Lord's leading, or our own. As soon as we got home I called our realtor and the mortgage broker to inform them of our decision to terminate the contract. I admit that for several days over the weekend I was troubled and frustrated, and I wanted to find SOME way to make this deal go through. However, once we made the decision to let it go, I was amazed by the peaceful reassurance we both felt that God is truly in control. Maybe one day I'll be able to find the same peace on the FRONT end of a personal crisis.
Yesterday morning I got a call from our realtor, and he said, "You should expect a couple of phone calls today." Not being satisfied to simply end the deal, he'd taken it upon himself to talk to the Director of his real-estate agency about our problem, and Kevin (the Director) called a personal friend, who is personal friends with the President of a local bank... and to make a long story short we just got home from signing another loan application! So our hopes for this house are still alive. Here's the ironic part: I just got a phone call from the President of Mountain Movers. The whole problem with the first bank was the way our income is reported; as a result, Mountain Movers checked with their accountant, who just told them that they can provide the documentation we needed in the first place. It's as though the Lord is saying: I just wanted you to know that I could have caused the first loan to work out - I just wanted to see if you would trust me or not.
I was thinking about all these issues this morning, and the fact that my employment status is still very tenuous, when I read the story at the end of Matthew 17 about Peter, Jesus and the "money fish". What a great story! Peter is confronted by the tax man, who basically accuses Jesus of being a tax-evader. Peter (not knowing what else to say) replies that of course Jesus pays all his taxes. I imagine Peter was still mulling this over in his mind as he entered the house, when Jesus asks him a question seemingly out of the blue: "Peter, do earthly kings ask their own children to pay taxes, or strangers?" Maybe Peter understood by now that Jesus seemed to have this uncanny ability to know what he was thinking. I would have wanted to say, "Wow, that's scary! I'd better be careful what I think about!". But Peter just answers the question. Even though the Sons of the Kingdom are free from obligation, to avoid offending the tax collector Jesus sends Peter out to catch a "money fish" and pay the required tax. One fish. The first fish that would bite his hook. And the fish would just "happen" to have the exact amount of tax required for two people - Jesus and Peter. Think about all the things that Jesus had to coordinate for this to work: the fish had to swallow the coin, then swim to the precise spot at the precise time that Peter would throw in his hook, and then be the first one to take the bait. I can imagine Peter thinking, "Say what? Do what?" But he went anyway, and apparently everything happened just as Jesus said it would. This funny little anecdote feels like it is just stuck in as an afterthought, but it was just what I needed to hear this morning. If Jesus can take care of Peter's tax problems with a money-fish, then why should I worry about how we'll get a loan, or pay for health insurance, or anything else? After all, it's only money right? That's easy for God. What's more difficult for God is to trust that in my own free will I'll choose to believe His promises.
What a wild ride.
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