The Currency of Heaven

If you have followed our story from the beginning, you know that I had serious issues with what God had asked us to do. We had realized that our Christian experience was seriously lacking power and, as a family, we had begun to ask God for “more”. His response was, “quit your job, sell your home and follow me”. Oh let’s not forget the part that frustrated me the most: “You won’t need to work, I’ll take care of you.”. As we are rapidly approaching our 6^thyear of walking out our pursuit of “more”, I have come to realize something. The currency of Heaven is far different from the currency of earth.

My Americanized Christian experience had taught me that God’s definition of more and my definition of more were essentially the same thing. As a result, when God first asked us to sell everything and move, I assumed that it would yield greater church involvement, a more visible kingdom impact, greater finances, a better home and a better vehicle. That was the currency that I was taught to value.

As those things failed to materialize, I got more and more frustrated with God. My definition of “more” required me to get out and hustle, and I desperately wanted to hustle. The problem was that none of us felt like a hustle was what God was asking for. Instead, He was simply asking us to connect with others. I would drive through our local town and have such a burning desire to know everyone that I saw. At a time when my Christian experience said I should be getting my hustle on to provide for my family, the Spirit of God was pushing me to meet the emotional and physical needs of those around me. Not as a way to make money, but simply as a way to connect and serve others. I eventually became the guy that was always there. I talked to people at the kid’s school, at the grocery store, at the gym, at the gas station. If I found out someone was moving, I didn’t wait for an invitation to help, I just showed up. If I saw a yard that needed mowed, I mowed it. The one thing God had given me was free time, so I sought to fill it with the one burning desire I had- to know and love people.

As I write this I fear that you may think of my actions as noble but, let me assure you, they were not. To be honest, I am ashamed as I reflect on how angry I was during this time. God would not allow me to hustle for me family, so I was going to show Him! I would pour myself into hustling for everyone I met! In hind sight, I can see that I was somehow trying to show God how stupid it was for Him to not let me work for my provision, because I am really good at it and all of these people could now attest to that!

I now see that God was attempting to change my perspective. Fame, money and things were the currency of my world, but the currency of Heaven appears to be relationships. When my family and I began to ask God for “more” out of our Christian life, He began answering. He picked us out of our predictable patterns, gave us free time and a desire to know others. He was attempting to lavish us with the commodity of Heaven (relationships) and I was busy looking for the commodities that were important to me.

As I reflect on the last 6 years, I realize that our family has been abundantly blessed with the currency of Heaven. The relationships we have built stretch all around the globe and include some of the most precious people. I no longer serve others as a way to show God how wrong He is. I do it because I genuinely love serving. My only regret is that I did not realize what God was attempting to do earlier. It would have saved me a lot of frustration if I had allowed Him to teach me about His economy without attempting to impress my economy on Him.

Women: A Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank you for allowing us to partner with what you are doing in our culture. Thank you for breaking the chains of religion that have prevented your children from coming together with one mind and in one accord. We lift our voices, in unison, to speak life. We fully recognize and agree with Romans 4:17 that tells us you have the ability to speak things that are not into being. We also want to give voice to the great things that you are doing in our culture.

Historically the enemy of our souls has used culture to create an environment that effectively silenced one of your most powerful creations: women. We recognize that you proclaimed, in Genesis 2:18, that this life is not good with man alone. As a man I recognize that women are your specifically designed warriors, placed on this earth with the express purpose of making it good. As men we repent for our complacency as the enemy created a culture of dishonor for your beautiful creation. And we recognize that you have ripped a hole in the fabric of our culture and it is no longer culturally acceptable to dishonor women. This cultural shift is the direct result of your hand of providence and we declare that we desire to partner with what you are doing regarding your daughters.

I pray that your daughters recognize the door you have opened for them and how powerfully and purposefully you designed them to be. I pray for boldness and assertiveness in their spirit. In the physical you designed them to create life, birth life and nurture life. We recognize those same characteristics in the spiritual and we pray that they would boldly step through the torn remnants of the culture that had been preventing their voices from being heard.

As men we recognize that means creating space for women to be the powerhouse that creates, births and nurtures spiritual life. I commit to honoring women and creating space for a much needed spiritual atmosphere that your amazing daughters were designed to bring. I partner with your words in Genesis and say “it is not good for man to be alone”. I am not okay being alone in business, in leadership, in song writing, in worship and in spiritual growth. I pray for release and freedom for your daughters to fly in these areas. I ask for ears to hear what you long to say through the voices of your powerful daughters.

Thank you for breaking the chains of oppression off of your amazing creation and I am going to live in anticipation and expectation as they freely exercise their God given power. Furthermore, as a man, I commit to honoring your daughters and intentionally creating space for their unique and powerful voices. Amen

Kingdom Success

In the post “Kingdom Business”, I shared that doors of opportunity are being opened for our family to become entrepreneurs and how that is challenging our concept of business. I would like to explore that a little more. The modern Christian has allowed religion, culture and experience to force God into a mold. That mold applies to our churches, ministries, day-to-day lives and, as we are now learning, our business practices. Jenny and I often talk about how difficult it is to maintain a Kingdom mindset (“Your Kingdom come…”) as we do day-to-day life. When the pressures of life present themselves, it is all to easy to fall back to the safe, predictable, formulaic processes of our religious upbringing and experience. We are finding this is true in business as well.

Jenny’s caramel business uses local farmer’s markets as a point of sale. Farmer’s Markets are popular in the Nashville area. There are so many, that it is challenging to decide which ones we want to join. As a result, the business formulas quickly begin to present themselves, in the form of questions:

“What is the anticipated foot traffic of the market?”

“Is it in a good location?”

“What are other vendor experiences like at this market?”

We use these questions to create a predictable method for determining a particular market’s potential for success. I do not believe that these are bad questions or that we should not conciser these factors, the challenge I see is what constitutes success. Our culture teaches us that business success is making a profit, but Kingdom success may not have the same definition. Remember, according to the Bible, it rarely made sense or fit a formula when God directed people to success. I believe that is why the Apostle Paul warned the church in Galatia about not starting in the spirit and finishing in the flesh (Galatians 3:3). As Christ followers our intention is to seek God’s kingdom first, but it is so easy to start that way (in the Spirit) and end in the flesh with our bottom dollar coming first. After all, we are running a business, right?

Here is an example: We were attempting to determine which markets to participate in and had weighed all of the pros/cons of a particular market. It appeared to be an easy choice, it would be profitable and it was close to home. The problem was that Jenny and I both felt that it was not where God wanted us. In the end, we chose not to participate in the market, even though it made good “business sense” to do so.

We are learning that in order to have a Kingdom business, we must have input from the King and the King’s ways are not like our ways. He does not require a marketing strategy, social media, consistent branding or any of the other thousand things that appear to be necessary for a successful business. I am not saying that you can’t have those things, I am saying God does not require them. He simply requires people who will listen to his voice and follow him. In the Kingdom of God, that is success.

Next week, I will explore three things that we would never say, but our actions indicate we believe. These beliefs impact our ability to maintain Kingdom business. Here they are:

• God is not practical
• God is not smart
• God is not good

Always and Never

I recently listened to an interview with pastor, author and film maker T.D. Jakes. The interview was regarding his new book for entrepreneurs titled “Soar”. In the interview he advocated getting your “grind” on. His definition of grind is good, old fashioned hard work and dedication. Jakes stressed that when God gives you an open door, you will need to “get your grind on” in order to make the most of that open door. He further reinforced the point by saying, “You won’t see it come to pass sitting on your mom’s couch eating cereal at noon”. I found myself in complete agreement with Jakes. I have found that the doors God opens require a supreme amount of work to walk through. I also believe that is the point being conveyed through much of the book of James. Faith, without works, is dead!

One point Jakes made gave me pause, however. He said, “God does not give you a chair, he gives you a block of wood and it is up to you to make a chair”. He went on to say, “God does not build chairs, he leaves that up to us.” Anyone who has been in a relationship for any length of time knows that it is dangerous to use the words “always” and “never” when describing your partner’s activities. I believe that concept is also problematic in our relationship with God. Every group from the beginning of time has attempted to codify God’s activities into a list of things he always requires and a list of things he never does or requires. That is how the Jewish people were able to expand the 10 commandments into multiple, detailed volumes of how and when God operates. While I agree with many of Jakes points, I believe his statement, about God not building chairs, strays into the realm of always and never.

My family has had the unique opportunity to experience different religious cultures over the last 5 years. The religious culture that I grew up in, emphasized Jakes point about the necessity of good, old fashioned hard work and dedication. Basically, if a door was not opened for you, knock a hole in the wall, because standing still is when the devil will get you (insert quotes from Proverbs and James here). Over the last few years, we have been exposed to other religious cultures that emphasize waiting for God and resting in his promises and goodness. These groups would point out that when the disciples were in need of money to pay taxes, Jesus provided money from the mouth of a fish. This, along with the fish and loaves story, and many other Biblical examples, would be used to illustrate that God is in fact in the business of making chairs.

So, who is right? Does God require you to make the chair or does he do it for you? I propose that both are right! Much to our chagrin, God does not conform to our “always and never” scenarios. In general, Christians tend to polarize into two groups: Grace and Judgment. The grace group highlights God’s goodness and focuses heavily on the Holy Spirit’s role in our lives. The judgment group highlights God’s judgment for wrongdoing and focuses heavily on the Bible’s role in our lives. Both are holding to a true aspect of God’s character (He is kind and he does judge wrongdoing) but they go wrong when they attempt to confine God into their respective always/never boxes. This hyper-focus on one aspect of God’s character causes us to miss him entirely. For example, if Jesus were part of the grace movement he would be reprimanded for name calling, insulting and physical abuse of the religious (that’s not the heart of the father!). If Jesus were part of the judgment movement he would be reprimanded for loving thieves and prostitutes (they are living in sin!).

As you become awakened to more of who God is, there is a good chance that you will be frustrated by the boxes that you restricted God to. You may even flee the confines of the religious culture that promoted those boxes in your life. I want to urge you to proceed with caution and prayer in this matter, because you run a very real risk of unwittingly exchanging the box you currently have God in, for the box that another group has God in. The goal is not to simply exchange boxes, it is to eliminate the “always/never” boxes altogether. For more on that, see the post “Tear Down The Walls”

Not My Will…

“Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”Luke 22:42

As a disciple of Christ, you will face one choice over and over again. The choice is: Your will, versus God’s will. We see an example of this when Jesus called his first disciples, in Matthew 4:18-19. These two men were most likely working their family business. They would have had bills to pay and mouths to feed, yet they were being called out and they faced a choice: their will, versus God’s will.

Our will typically has to do with our preferences and ultimately our comfort. Our will is driven by temporal things that make us feel in control. It is where we want to live, the type of comforts we want for ourselves and our families and a safe level of predictability. I do not believe God is angered when we choose our will over his and it certainly does not cause Him to love us less. As I shared in the post, “A Safe Place”, He is a good father and He allows us to control the level of involvement He has in our lives. He provides freedom from destructive lifestyles, and then offers us a choice: your will, versus God’s will. If you chose your comfort and a level of predictability over His will, he still loves you and wants the best for you. Additionally, he will continually check in with you to see if you are ready for more than a safe predictable life has to offer.

God’s ultimate desire for you is to take you on an adventure, but he leaves the choice up to you: Your will, or God’s will.

Orphan or Adopted?

Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—

John 1:12

John gives us a quick overview of who Jesus is and what his intentions were, in the first chapter of his book. Prior to verse 12 he details that no one recognized Jesus. His own people, who studied the scriptures intentionally looking for the Messiah, missed him. That is when John says, “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the RIGHT to BECOME children of God.” I would like to focus on the concept of “becoming” children of God.

The opportunity to become children of God, indicates that we are not naturally children of God. According to John, we need to “receive him” and “believe in his name”, then we have the right, or choice, to become children of God. It appears that we can receive him and believe in him, but still choose not to become his children. As a result we default to the status of orphan.

According to what I have read, an orphan has a fierce sense of independence. They know that if they don’t take care of themselves, no one else will. They are aware that there are good, kind, loving people in the world, but they feel that they are not good enough to deserve that kind of love. They often exhibit a need to prove their worth, through hard work and determination, and are very proud of their ability to do things for themselves.

If I combine John’s insight, with what I know about being an orphan, I come to the following conclusion: I have spent the majority of my Christian life as an orphan. I received Jesus and believed in Jesus, but I have never chosen to become his child. I exhibited all of the characteristics of an orphan. I was fiercely independent and knew that if I did not take care of myself no one else would. I read the Bible my entire life and was aware that God was good and kind, but somehow felt that I did not have access to his bountiful riches and kindness. As a result, I was left to fend for myself. I started a family, got a good job and continued to receive and believe in Jesus, but never fully accepted the opportunity to become his Child.

As I look back over the last four years, I see that my family and I have been reluctantly choosing to become children of God. As strange as this may sound, giving up our orphan status was very difficult. Our culture and religious training reinforced our orphan mind set at every turn. God would say, “listen to my voice, and I will take care of you” and our orphan mind would respond with plans and ways to take care of ourselves. We would read in Matthew 6 where Jesus tells his followers that they are not to worry about where they live, what they eat or what they wear and that those concerns are for the pagan people who reject God, yet we still wanted to take care of ourselves. Because we were well versed in scripture, we attempted to use the Proverbs to talk ourselves out of allowing God to be our father and take care of us. We would point to Proverbs 6 and attempt to explain that we can take care of ourselves and that we really didn’t need him to provide for us.

As you can read in our story, it has taken us a long time to accept the love of a father. We still have overwhelming moments where we think like an orphan and begin to plan to meet our own needs, but we are at least aware that there is an alternative now. We are also diligent about listening for our father’s voice and obeying his directions for each day. After all, that is what seeking first the kingdom is – listening and obeying. Our father promises to take care of all of our needs, if we will seek his kingdom first.

Home At Last-Now, Where Are My Feet?

Finally, after over 4 months, I am sitting my tushie down and writing. I have had many, many thoughts and things I have wanted to share, but I have not been able to gather them together to form any kind of coherent sentence let alone blog post. I have been trying to find my way. I had very definite ideas about what living in a house again would look like and how I would respond to it. None of them were even close to what happened. It did not really surprise me that the house coming together was different than I imagined. I am very familiar with Isaiah 55:8 “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.” I have repeated that over and over throughout my life to remind myself that God has everything in control. What surprised me was my response.

Late summer/early fall of last year I felt like I needed to go on an extended fast. Specifically, a 49 day fast. I had been reading through the Old Testament and was intrigued with the Year of Jubilee. For 49 years the Israelites could sell their land, houses, even offer themselves as slaves, to pay off debts, but in the 50^th year, the Year of Jubilee, all land and possessions would be given back to their original owners and slaves would be set free. I felt like the Sanders family needed a jubliee, that it was time for restoration. During that time I attended a ladies Bible study at our church. Our study was on the power of our words and making sure we are speaking life over our lives, our children, families, etc. So I became the crazy praying momma, declaring restoration, life, direction, any good thing I could think of over our family. Toward the end of the fast Aaron received a letter from the company he had worked for in MN. He was informed he now had access to almost $30,000 from a retirement plan that had previously been unavailable. Believe me, had we had access to that puppy in November of 2013 we would have used it!!! Now, for whatever reason, it was available to cash out. Our rule as a family is that whatever seems like a no-brainer to our human minds probably needs to be seriously prayed about. This definitely seemed like a no-brainer, so we prayed. We told the kiddos about it and asked them what they thought. They all thought we should cash it out, but no one had the same thoughts about what to do with it. One thought for sure we should rent a house, one thought that maybe we were supposed to use it to help other people, one thought we should get a new vehicle and one was undecided. Since we were not in unanimous agreement, we agreed that we would cash out the money but hold onto it until we could agree on what we should do.

The kiddos had fall break at the beginning of October. Aaron and the kiddos stayed with his parents in Illinois and Amanda (the bestie) and I traveled up to Minnesota to see our families. We left Minnesota and went back to Illinois on a Sunday, which happened to be our “day of jubliee” (end of my fast). Nothing happened. Monday we left to go back to Tennessee. After we got Amanda home we contemplated our next move. We always needed to decide how long we were going to stay at a particular hotel. I had found multiple hotels while we were gone where we could stay for 3 weeks, but I wasn’t with the family to discuss it. Now that we were back, in Tennessee, there was not one single hotel, that we could afford, that had anything available for that long. We decided to find one to book until Friday. Isabella had a favorite hotel because of their continental breakfast so we stayed there. I suppose that is a good reason to choose a place. Haha! As we were getting ready for bed that evening we were all talking about what we should do with the money. We decided that we should just look to see if there was even anything we were interested in that was in our price range. Finding a rental house in this area is a miracle in itself. Anything that is remotely affordable is snatched up immediately. Even high-end rentals go fast. I did a search online and found 3 houses that we could afford. Two of them were set up so that a person could go and look at them without waiting for an agent. For the other one I sent in a request. We prayed together before we went to bed and asked God to make it abundantly clear if we are to move into one of these houses and to make the process smooth without us coniving to make things happen.

Tuesday morning the agent of the first house called me. I explained to her that on paper Aaron does not make enough to cover the rent of the house but that we had just gotten $24,000 (ouch on the taxes) and we could pay for six months or the whole year if that worked for them. She let me know that the company did not do that so we did not bother to go look at that house. Tuesday evening we went to look at the other two houses. They had the same monthly rent. One was in one of the neighborhoods we wanted to be in the other one was bigger, but not in a bus route for the kids’ schools. We went to look at the bigger one first and as soon as we walked in the door the kids said, “This is the house.” We went ahead and looked at the other one (in the neighborhood we liked), but knew that it was the first one we needed to go with. We contacted the rental company Wednesday morning and told them the same thing we told the first rental company; we were interested in renting the house, that Aaron does not make enough to cover the monthly rent, but that we had money set aside and could pay six months to a year in advance. They said yes, we could do that and asked when we wanted to move in. We told them we were living in a hotel and wanted to move in as soon as possible. They sent us the rental agreement to sign that night and gave us a move in date of Friday. The same Friday that we would be checking out of the hotel and would have been needing to look for another one to stay. So many more things happened after this, but I’m going to save those for another post because they are so fun and amazing and I do not want them to get lost in this one.

I was a giddy mess on Thursday morning. We had coffee dates with two of our friends and we were going to surprise them by showing them pictures of the house and then telling them we would be moving in the next day. I loved it!!! I had the giggles all day and was no doubt rather annoying. Their reactions were everything I hoped and, being the awesome people they are, were excited and giddy right along with me.

Friday morning we met the rental agent at the house to get the keys and go over leasing rules and what not. I was still a giddy mess at that point. Then the agent handed us the keys and left and that is when I did not know what to do with myself anymore. It was real. This was not hoping for something to change, this was not a short reprieve from van or hotel living by staying in someone else’s house, this was our place, to move all of our things into, not just our suitcases. This was those stupid storage units finally being emptied. No more standing in the rain to find and swap out clothes, no more tearing through boxes to find the items the kids need for school the next day, and having no idea where it is. No more days planned around the hours of the Rec. Center, so we could make sure we are all able to shower, no more looking for free things to do and places to go on the weekends because we did not have our own place to go back to. It all hit me and I laid my head on Aaron’s shoulder and cried. And cried, and cried. That evening we packed up the first stupid storage unit into a truck. Our boys are big tough guys now so we had that thing emptied and in the truck in less than 2 hours. Whoop! Our amazing friends came over to help us unload everything. I stood in the house and occasionally bossed people around, but was mostly quiet. Mulitple times I caught the bestie staring at me. Finally she said, “I keep waiting for you to freak out! You’re so quiet!!!” Haha! I must be pretty predictable! Lol! I don’t know what was going on, I think I must have still been processing everything.

We moved into the house in the midst of theatre madness. Alex had a role in “Arsenic and Old Lace” at his high school. Aaron and I love volunteering for the theatre productions so we unpacked the essentials and continued on with the theatre madness. As soon as the play was over I had 3 opportunities to be a vendor at holiday craft shows and markets. I was making caramels every spare moment. I happen to make ridiculously amazing caramels and they sold like mad. I think I made around 3,000 of them from the end of October to the beginning of December. Then we had another theatre production (a smaller one), visiting family for Christmas break, back to rehearsing and prepping for another theatre production, helping friends in their very successful business venture and, of course, the everyday crazy that is the Sanders family.

I completely understand that most people have very busy, eventful lives so there is nothing special or spectacular in what we were doing, but I have not been able to find where I am supposed to be. I have been busy, but I feel like it is running in circles busy, not productive busy. As I said, I have not been able to find the words to write (I think I’m making up for it though). The best way to describe it is if you could see my brain, all the words are busy dancing around in there instead of making any kind of formation. Rather fitting for me, really. I have expressed my frustrations about this with friends and with Aaron and recently he said something that really helped me. He told me I had been on “war footing” and now I have to find what to do with myself in a new place. He has used that phrase for himself frequently throughout this faith journey, but I have never applied it to myself. He is right, I was on war footing. I didn’t recognize it because his war footing is very intense and serious and almost angry. My war footing looks like ensuring everyone is safe, fed, comfortable (as much as possible), encouraged and happy. I had a daily routine for this war footing and suddenly my footing shifted. I knew the day would come, but I didn’t embrace it like I thought I would. Like a sailor that longs for land after months and months at sea; so happy to finally be on that land, but needing time to find “land legs”.

This post marks the point where I find my new footing and begin running, with all my strength, into this next season of the adventure that God has for us.

Red Brick and Black Shutters

After two years, nine months and twenty three days, the Sanders family is in a house again! If you have just started following the Sanders family adventures, you can catch up on the last three years here, by scrolling to the bottom and clicking “older posts” until you get to the first post.

Since the beginning of the year we have felt that it was time for a change. As you can see, from previous posts, when we were living out of our van we had peace. We did not love the inconvenience of the situation, but we all knew that it was for a purpose and it was what we needed to do. That started changing at the beginning of the year, but we could not see how our living situation could ever change.

I have mentioned before that we are in the ninth wealthiest county in the country. To say that finding a home is expensive is an understatement. There are few apartments in the area and houses rent for thousands of dollars per month. We felt like God had opened the door for me to drive a school bus but that was not a money making venture, besides it is not the type of job that could take a family from less than a hundred dollars to their name, to spending thousands per month on rent and utilities. Still we all felt an overwhelming sense of hope that restoration was coming. We regularly discussed the frustration of having hope when there was no apparent reason to have hope.

In May we explained the feelings and situation to a couple of ladies from our church and they prayed that we would no longer need to be in our van, and that God would begin to provide a place for us each day. God must have heard that prayer because from that day on we had a place to stay. Sometimes it was in a hotel, sometimes friends offered to allow us to house sit, or just invited us to stay. We are truly blessed with amazing friends and family! We understand that our family adventure is challenging for people. We see from Biblical accounts that God’s Training Plan often involves some peculiar situations, but Americanized Christianity has no time for inconvenient and uncomfortable times of testing/training. So we are doubly thankful that God has provided us with so many loving, accepting people who were willing to listen to us, check in on us, and love us as we’ve walked out what we felt God was asking us to do. This journey has been the most challenging thing we have ever done and there were many days of complete frustration and despair that were brightened by a call from a friend or a note of support from family.

As the school year progressed the feeling of hope got stronger. The pastor at our church was teaching a series on speaking life (Jenny’s specialty!) into situations and Jenny was attending a ladies Bible study that was addressing the same topic. During one of the sermons, my mind flashed back to a conversation I had with a friend from China. He was in the states and called to check up on us (see! Awesome friends!). I was explaining to him that my kids were thriving and that they are almost always positive about our adventure. I also explained that I often get frustrated about not being able to provide luxuries that are part of the American culture. He encouraged me to allow the children’s positive words to change how I speak/think about the journey. I was getting the message to remove negativity at every turn.

I began to make an effort to speak faith regarding our adventure and to stop talking/thinking negative things. When I began to focus on my words, I was surprised to discover how negative I was. Then the radiator in our van sprung a leak and needed to be replaced. We had under $50 to our name and our only source of transportation was out of commission. You try being positive about that!

Jenny calmed me down by speaking faith (she is AMAZING for me) and I took it to a local repair shop. A friend (more amazing people!) allowed me to borrow his vehicle while the repairs were being made. The repair shop called and informed me that the cost to replace the radiator was more than $600. I told him to go ahead with the repair, not knowing how I would pay for it. Within minutes of authorizing the repairs a fantastic friend (see a pattern here?) contacted and said they wanted to pay for the repair, sighting Acts 2:44 as the basis for their gift. It has truly been humbling and amazing to witness the true church in action over the last 3 years. They do not attend the same church or belong to the same denomination, but they are listening to the Father’s voice and for that we are grateful.

So, how did we get a house? At the beginning of October I received a letter from a former employer. 15 years ago they had started a retirement account for me. I vaguely recalled it because I had tried to tap every available resource nearly three years ago when our adventure got scary. At that time the account was not available for withdrawal. I could not even find out how much was in it. Additionally, they did not send statements on the account. As a result, I had forgotten about it. The first letter I had ever received from them stated that the account was available for immediate cash withdrawal and provided the paperwork to make the withdrawal. The account had a substantial amount of money in it. We requested the money and it came a couple of days before Jenny finished a 50 day fast that she felt led to do (coincidence?). That money allowed us to get a beautiful, spacious home near our schools and friends.

We had recently cleaned out our storage units and given our bedroom set away. We also had to throw away a couple of our mattresses, due to water damage, so we needed mattresses. The day before we were scheduled to move into the house a man flagged us down as we were leaving our hotel. We had not stayed in that hotel since last year, so we were sure he could not have recognized us. We stopped and he asked us if we needed mattresses. What? We hesitantly said yes and he explained that he had been hired to remodel the hotel and he had a pile of practically new king size box springs and mattresses left over. He said that he did not want to throw them away, so he thought he would ask us if we wanted them. We gladly accepted! As I was leaving he shook my hand, leaned in and looked me in the eyes. Then he said “remember, God is always good.” I asked him what his name was and he said, “Jesus.” So, we can legitimately say that Jesus gave us two king size bedroom sets.

In the post “A Call to Christianity”, I stated that I do not record this adventure to convince atheists and unbelievers that there is a God, I record it to encourage Christians to be Christian. An unbeliever or an atheist could use coincidence, or chance to explain away how a phone bill arrives and the next letter opened has a note with a check. The note says “for your phone bill” and the check covers the bill. Or to explain when we feel led to write out a list of our bills and pray for God to pay them and hours later someone contacts us and asks for an itemized list of our bills, because God blessed them and they want to pay our bills. We have hundreds of little miracles like this in the last 3 years as a testimony to shake the Americanized Christian to the core and wake them up to have a God adventure of their own. When you step out, he will test you, refine you and always provide for you because he is always good.

P.S. Over 2 years ago a friend of ours told us that he felt like God had told him that He was going to give our family a house. Specifically, a house with red brick and black shutters. We had not thought about those words until we had signed the paperwork on the house and were reflecting on the amazing blessing of having a house without striving, stress, government assistance or selling our life away to make monthly payments. It is God’s good pleasure to answer prayers… and he is into details, that is why our new house has red brick and black shutters. It is exciting to know that we are exactly where we are supposed to be and we are looking forward to living out the passion that God has placed in us.

The First Video Blog!

Five+ minutes of pure awesome.  😉

God Hears You

I sat down today to catch up on my journaling.  As I was thinking back on what has happened this summer I remembered a prayer someone from church had prayed over us at the end of May.  When she finished praying she told us to read Psalm 116 and make it ours.  I went back and read it this morning and was struck with the thought that someone else needed it today.  So, for whoever you are, here is Psalm 116:

I love the LORD because he hears my voice
and my prayer for mercy.

Because he bends down to listen,
I will pray as long as I have breath!

Death wrapped its ropes around me;
the terrors of the grave overtook me.
I saw only trouble and sorrow.

Then I called on the name of the LORD:
“Please, LORD, save me!”

How kind the LORD is! How good he is!
So merciful, this God of ours!

The LORD protects those of childlike faith;
I was facing death, and he saved me.

Let my soul be at rest again,
for the LORD has been good to me.

He has saved me from death,
my eyes from tears,
my feet from stumbling.

And so I walk in the LORD’s presence
as I live here on earth!

I believed in you, so I said,
“I am deeply troubled, LORD.”

In my anxiety I cried out to you,
“These people are all liars!”

What can I offer the LORD
for all he has done for me?

I will lift up the cup of salvation
and praise the LORD’s name for saving me.

I will keep my promises to the LORD
in the presence of all his people.

The LORD cares deeply
when his loved ones die.

O LORD, I am your servant;
yes, I am your servant, born into your household;
you have freed me from my chains.

I will offer you a sacrifice of thanksgiving
and call on the name of the LORD.

I will fulfill my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people—

in the house of the LORD
in the heart of Jerusalem.
Praise the LORD!

 
Take heart, the Lord knows right where you are, He DOES hear your prayers and He WILL answer. ~Love, Jen