On the move

“Unless the Lord builds a house, the work of the builders is wasted.”

Ps 127:1

Just over two weeks ago, we moved house. The journey from where we used to live to where we now live is a mile and takes approximately 3 minutes (5 if the traffic is bad!) The heart-journey to get here was much further and took a lot longer! It’s a journey I’ve been on for years. A journey that my husband and I have been on for many years. From being desperate to move and being told a very firm “stay” by God, to feeling we would have to move to provide the optimum learning environment for our son, to wanting to move and not being able to afford to, to finally loving being in our house…which was the moment God told us to put our house on the market!

Father has taught me SO much through this time and is still teaching me so much. I’m so thankful for a Father who meets me where I’m at. Who uses my circumstances to convict me, encourage me, remind me of His love and His plans for me. He doesn’t waste a single opportunity. These are just a few of the things He’s been teaching me through this journey:

Obedience does not lead to reward! I didn’t even know I’d believed this! But it turns out that when God tells you to put your house on the market, that doesn’t mean that the first person to see it will offer the price you want for it and your offer will be accepted on the house you love! If you’d asked me before we put our house on the market, I could not have articulated that this is what I believed would happen. It was only as we lost a house we loved as a result of not having an offer on our house and then not receiving an offer for 5 months that I felt a sense of resentment that God was not seeing through His part of the “deal.” In bringing this to Him, He very gently reminded me that He’d never said any of those things would happen. He had simply invited us to put our house on the market. He was looking for our obedience. Did we trust Him more than we trusted what He could do for us? I’m thankful that Father is quick to forgive!

His plans and His timing are perfect. I mean, this is something I’ve always said but I found I didn’t always believe it. It’s easy to believe when things work out the way we think they should but it’s far harder when they don’t. And yet it is still true because He is Truth. We had a buyer for our house and for 5 months over darkest winter and lockdowns we tried to find where in the world He had chosen for us to live. 6 days after our buyer pulled out, we found a house we wanted to buy! And we were not in a position to have an offer accepted on it. But He knew that the house He had for us was not yet available for purchase. He also didn’t waste the time we felt was “waiting.” He reminded me over and over that He works in the waiting, not in spite of it but through it. Purposefully.

Just because everyone says something has to be a certain way doesn’t mean it’s true. Once we had been led to the house I am now sat in and we had a buyer for our old house I still felt it would all fall apart at any minute. I didn’t want that to be our experience of moving house. I wanted to be able to look forward to what God had put in front of us, whether that looked like this house or any other. I prayed that would be our experience, that it would be underpinned by peace which passes understanding. The closer we got to the rough date we were aiming at for completion, the more people kept saying how stressful moving house was. But we didn’t feel stressed. We felt at peace. We had done everything we needed to and nothing was in our control to affect. And we felt peace in that. And we felt excitement in that! There were plenty of hurdles and plenty of reschedules but through all of it we felt peace. It confirmed to us that God was in control. In the end, we exchanged contracts on Wednesday, completed on Friday and moved on Saturday! And at no point did it feel stressful. Busy, yes. Complicated, yes. Last minute changes, yes. But we were held and carried by the One who loves us.

Preparation is never wasted. I’m busy decorating our son’s bedroom in the anticipation of the arrival of his new bed in 10 days time. In my head (as the completer-finisher I am) I would fill the holes from the curtain rail and a picture hook, paint all the walls white, have my husband paint the ceiling (short girl problems!) and then get two coats of colour on the walls and be done in around 3 days. I’m on day 3 and I’m still filling holes! There were way more than I had foreseen. And I’ve had to do some serious work around the window which is not filling holes. Plus the ceiling light fitting and it’s plaster cracks. And then when the radiator came off there was a whole world of work behind there! And my completer-finisher is hugely frustrated because the part my heart longs for is to make it my son’s home! I want to make it everything he wants it to be so that it’s somewhere he feels comfortable in and meets his needs for calm and grounding. That doesn’t look like preparation!

But as I’ve filled, Father has reminded me that the better the preparation of the surface, the better the final result will fulfil its purpose. And He’s shown me so many times in my life when that has been the case. When the preparation would not have been my choice, but it has enabled me to be equipped to handle the events I had no idea were coming in the future. When the method of preparation would most definitely have been furthest from my personal preference (pain-free is always my aim!) but it has built spiritual muscle in me that could not have been built in a pain-free way. And so I’m choosing to ask Father to show me with each hole I fill, each rough patch I sand, each old fixing I remove and repair, each surface I scrape, each wall that I wash…what does He want to fill in my life? What rough patch needs His sanding? Which old fixings need removing and which simply need repair? Which walls need preparation….and which just need to be removed?! 

I’m struck over and over by that verse…unless the Lord builds the house, the work of the builders is wasted. If I go ahead and throw some paint on the walls, it will be in vain. If we’d gone for just any house to have “a” house, it would have been less than His best. We would not have grown as we have without the process we’ve been through. And I’m thankful for that! I’m even thankful for the hard because none of it has been in vain. My Father doesn’t waste a single thing.

If the situation you find yourself in is less than favourable right now, tell your Father exactly how you feel. This is not an exercise in pretending. He loves you and He knows and it is more than ok with Him when we come to Him in our real-ness and honesty. Allow Him to meet you there. And when He meets you, ask Him what He has for you in this time, in this season. Ask Him to see the jewel in the hard. Ask Him to show you how the hard is not being wasted. Reach out to a friend and be real and honest with them. Ask them to pray and petition God with you. He is for you, not against you. And He has a plan and a purpose even when we can’t see it.