We found it completely by accident after being let down by a sneaky realtor. One of my favorite kinds of blessings are the ones that happen immediately after you have been let down. I feel like it's God's way of saying, "I see you, I'm here, and I haven't gone anywhere."
After falling in love with and losing the sneaky realtor's house, I was determined to find another house in the same area. The only problem was, none of the listings were in our government-employee price range. (Apparently those lovely Californians had brought their home prices with them when they came to Texas.)
But then my husband found it, all available and vacant, next to the two most beautiful words that can be seen next to a house listing: "price reduced." It was a couple of miles past the original neighborhood I was ogling, but it was off the same main access road and had the same awesome school ratings. We booked the viewing, and I held my breath.
The first time we turned down the road on my street, I thought we were lost. Each custom home was nicely situated on 3 and 4 and 5 acre lots, and the further down you drove, the more extravagant they got. My husband and I just looked at each other.
"Are you sure you're on the right street?" I asked.
"The GPS lady says I am," he answered.
We drove about a mile down, passing a beautiful, stately home separated from the street by a private pond (or maybe a moat??) and then we saw it; our sweet little 3 bedroom 2 bathroom house, built in 1979--still basking in much of her linoleum and wallpapered glory. It has a sunken living room and the tiniest master bathroom you've ever seen and a sad, dreary brown door.
I truly loved it.
As we toured the house and asked questions, we happened to notice some new construction on the lot next door. It turned out that a well-off custom pool and home contractor for the area had decided to build his dream home in that spot. So we would be the little house between the castle with a moat and the 6,500 sq. ft. looker with a dream pool.
Oh man! Where do we sign?!
For a while it was really amusing to me that we were the regular Joes where all the Joneses were. Their kids would drive their golf carts and motorized scooters down the street, while we would have a contest with our kids in the front yard using the three-year-old hula hoop I had bought on clearance for two bucks. We would take family walks in the evening and swoon over two to three miles-worth of beautiful homes and cars and yards and dogs. (Seriously, one of our neighbors said he spent thousands of dollars on each of his rare breed of dog. He had THREE of them!) I always enjoyed looking at all of these treasures, but it was enough for me just to look at them--while I appreciated the beauty that was in those things, I never felt the pull to have them for myself.
But you know what the enemy does to your heart whenever it's content? It's so small and seemingly innocent, you might not even notice it's happening. He makes you aware that other things are attainable. It's not that you are immediately ungrateful for the things you do have, but you start to develop this lingering hope of what you might have someday. And then, ever so subtly...
what you have < what you hope to have. Eventually, the things you do have no longer seem good enough. Sure, they were perfectly good and amusing before, but this other thing might be better. It sure looks better.
That's how you covet. That's how he can take a sweet contentment, the slightest hope for blessings and favor--something we are promised in the LORD!--and corrupt it, turning it into sin.
He's done this from the very beginning, friends.
"Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”(Genesis 3:1-7 NIV)
“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
I used to pride myself on the fact that I was never much of a material girl. My parents didn't have a lot of money growing up, and so I didn't put a lot of stock on things. Then I went to college where EVERYBODY is poor. Then, I married a man in the Army, where we all make modest amounts of money and any nice thing you DO have gets broken during a move anyway.
People, this is the first time I have ever lived anywhere or known anyone who was able to have these beautiful things. And it turns out, after all this time of thinking I was above it, I am not immune.
No one is.
So how do we overcome it?
We seek our contentment from God and God alone. Which is like the easiest sounding BUT MOST EASY TO SCREW UP THING EVER.
It was literally our first sin. That is why it is the first of the Ten Commandments: You shall have NO other Gods before me. Know what the last one is? Thou shalt not covet.
Coincidence? I think not.
It is SO important, SO critical, SO easy to slip up on, that He bookends it. First, LOVE ME FIRST. Last, DESIRE NO THING OVER ME.
Yesterday, I started a Bible Study at my new church on Tim Keller's "Counterfeit Gods". Basically, I am only ten pages into this book and AM RUINED FOREVER. As I entered the room, I was all like, "Man, I wonder what kind of small, little bit of something that's not Jesus is hiding under the surface here" and a single hour later, God was all "YOU BEAUTIFUL IDIOT! YOU LIKE THE THINGS!"
Y'all. Turns out I like the things.
So here I am, and here is where I'm at. I won't stay here, though. One day, in the future, I really will be over all of these worldly things. But that's not today.
Pray for me. Pray for you. Pray for all of us.
"Than any comfort, Jesus is better--make my heart believe.
More than all riches, Jesus is better--make my heart believe.
Our souls declaring, Jesus is better--make my heart believe.
Our song eternal, Jesus is better--make my heart believe."
(Also, feel free to come visit me anytime. I'm the little fella between all the giant mansions.)
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete