Thursday, March 29, 2007

Jumping in...

I've tried this blogging thing once before... I think the only way for it to work for me is to just jump in. So unless you've been keeping up with our lives lately, you're going to have to do some "mirror reading" to figure out what's going on in the life of Paul and Audrea...
So here we go: Monday morning we got an email from our realtor in KY saying that the sellers of the home which we had a contingent (on selling our home in MN) offer on received another offer. We had 48 hours to show that we could "perform" (that simply means that we could either find a buyer for our home or somehow come up with the money to close on the KY home) or we would have to back out of the deal. Unfortunately, we had gotten somewhat emotionally attached to 2702 Alice Ave and losing it would be a setback for sure.
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I was just wrapping up reading Lost in the Middle. In the final pages, Paul Tripp talks about God's grace being a disappointing grace. God intends at times to disappoint us as He fights for our worship of Him alone. It is grace that will often take from us things we cherish closely in order we might see how misplaced our affections have been. As I talked with Audrea about potentially losing that house, I realized that even in something like this home that we didn't even own, we could elevate our desires to an inordinance if we were not watching ourselves.
We had two showings of the MN home since Monday morning, but no dice. By yesterday noon, we knew that it wasn't going to happen. So as with all things that have occurred, we can look back and say that God did not want us to have that house (unless of course His providential hand later shifts things back to that house). He wants us to just lean on Him alone for what He has for us.
So now we wait. We're going to just sit here until the MN home gets an offer and once that happens we will then make another trip down to Louahville and begin the search again.
So pray that we have our affections drawn to God Himself and not the stuff of life. Don't worry about when the buyer will come, though of course, I still pray that way--I can always express my wishes to God. Pray that whether it is in one week or six weeks or twelve weeks, that we will only fall deeper in love with the God we serve.

2 comments:

Tom Walther said...

Paul, I can very much appreciate your feelings right now, having "been there and done that". I've also had the experience of coming through the other side and I can tell you that we serve a wonderful God who knows us and loves us. I think sometimes that's how we'll feel when we see the other side of Glory. All of the pains and disappointments will seem like fading shadows in the light of His Glory. Keep strong. God IS our strength.

Gretchen said...

Paul, Welcome back to the blogsphere! Your post was VERY good, I look forward to reading your blog in the future.

I have been thinking in that direction quite a bit lately. Thank you for your transparency -- I just LONG for contentment in my heart! It's amazing how the absence of something makes you realize how much you prized it in your heart.

We'll be praying for you guys.