After we sold just about everything (including our house) and moved from Canada to Florida, we expected to find a home quickly. We knew God was leading us and figured there would be provision for a home. We were more than ready for the next step in our adventure - we had arrived to the land of the free. But things were not going the way we hoped. It was also the land of the crazy-hot-housing market and we had already lost two homes in bidding wars. We were feeling the tension of waiting between where we were and where we were going. We felt disconnected, aimless, and stuck. Man, I wish I knew then what I know now about the importance of waiting.
And so the house hunt continued. We looked at so many, but none felt right until we found a home in a new area- it checked all the boxes and the “feel” was just right. So, like all the other offers we had submitted in the past, in ours went. We waited…and waited…and waited. This one felt like an eternity. Finally, we heard back and discovered that our offer was the highest and we had the least amount of conditions on the sale! This should have been good news…but despite our good offer, the sellers had decided to sell to the next person on the list.
I know, you’re thinking the same as us, What?!? I guess when God closes a door, it doesn’t always make sense - but it’s always right.
So that night, I went for a long, tearful, defeated walk. Praying over our future. Why did this keep happening? In the following days doubt kept knocking at the door. How do we move forward in faith when nothing seems to be going our way? Despite the glimmering ocean in front of us, it felt like we were wandering through the desert. We had left our home but hadn’t yet reached where we were going.
The book I was reading at the time was Wild Ones by Nate Johnson. In his book he describes two types of wilderness experiences from scripture. I had always assumed that in a season of waiting, or wilderness, it will inevitably be long and hard. It’s a season to simply endure before the promised land comes along. I had mistakenly assumed we were in a season just like this.
Nate Johnson acknowledges this type of wilderness with the Israelite’s 40 year wandering which was a result of their disobedience. That long season was a consequence of their poor decisions. Because of their sin, they had to wait for the promise. But there were other examples of wilderness moments - like when Jesus spent 40 days in the desert before he began his public ministry. Likewise, John the Baptist stayed in the wilderness for years preparing for his ministry. Their time in the wilderness was not about punishment, it was about preparation. I realized I had assigned a punishment label to our waiting period when it should have been about preparing! The timing wasn’t quite right yet - maybe our new home wasn’t ready for us. Or maybe we needed to focus on what God was doing in our hearts - maybe we weren’t quite ready yet.
What came to mind as I prayed was the verse, "Walk by faith, not by sight”. I didn’t know where in scripture it was from and I hadn’t read it recently but I knew it was a whisper from the Holy Spirit. Walk by faith not by sight. Keep moving. You may not know what’s to come but trust there is a reason to this wilderness. I knew if I was going to view this season as a time to prepare, I needed to let go of control and really trust God with the outcome. I needed to stay in the word and be ready for any time He would lead or speak. My idea of where we ended up may not line up with where God wants us. And although I felt frustrated, I knew I wanted God’s way over mine.
On that tearful walk I was able to finally surrender my idea of where we should live and left it in His hands. We wouldn’t limit our search to the homes with all our boxes checked. We would fully surrender our large list of “wants” including my superficial desire for a spot to put a big Christmas tree.
A little while later, as we were wrapping up another unsuccessful afternoon with our realtor, she checked her phone one last time for any market updates. Well, wouldn’t you know - a house had JUST come on the market, 5 minutes from where we were, on the very first street we fell in love with. The idyllic, mature-treed neighborhood with cul-de-sac streets and community feel. It’s where we lost out on our very first bidding war. But because of the limited homes in the area, and the increasing market prices, we figured it would be a pipe-dream by now to get into that neighborhood. We quickly made our way over to the street that had captured our hearts five months prior. Could this really be it?? We were able to get an immediate showing and noticed quickly that although the house definitely needed some TLC, it was the exact floor plan as the house we had lost. We realized it had everything on our surrendered check-list…and best of all, it had the perfect place for a tall Christmas tree. We left that showing feeling hopeful and cautious. It would take a lot more work to get it fixed up than we had expected. The rising cost of homes plus renovations could put us in a tough spot. If this house went into a bidding war, it was unlikely we would be able to make a competitive offer. But if it was what God had for us, then we knew He would provide a way.
We prayed and prayed. The next day, we put in our best offer and asked for it to be signed back that day. There were some quirky things to this house that made us a bit wary and we wanted to be sure we weren’t being careless. Finally, the sellers responded, they were not going to wait for competing offers and had accepted ours!!! Thank you, Jesus!!
We rode this cloud 9 high for a few days! We were so grateful! It felt way too good to be true. I kept waiting for the bottom to fall out because I just couldn’t believe we had actually found what we had been hoping for.
I’m thankful now for the wait - because in that time we were driven to our knees in prayer. We learned to fast and wait on Gods answers. We developed grit to not give up when things got hard.
All things that would be needed as we ventured into the next season. As we left the wilderness and set our eyes on the place God had for us. But, it was occupied. We soon realized there would be a spiritual battle over the territory we were about to embark on. And as our house purchase agreement started to show cracks, we found ourselves at a crossroads - we could give up and let the deal fall through or we could fight for the territory we believed God had led us to.
(I hate doing this, but there is so much story to tell…to be continued)
Make sure to catch the first parts of our story:
PART 1: THIS Changed Everything I Understood About My Calling
PART 2: Why Our Prayers Might Not Be Answered
PART 3: When Hard Does Not Equal Wrong
What I Wish I Knew About a Waiting Season[+podcast]