2018 is a year that will be defined in our lives by change. We began this year as youth pastors in San Diego, CA and we will close this year serving in executive leadership at a church in Macon, GA.
One of the coolest changes in this year was a real adulting moment. We purchased our first home together! We are no longer renters, we are owners. It had been a dream since we were married to own a home we could host friends and family.
It is quite a different experience owning a home from renting one. For one, I can paint the walls any color I want, drill a hole in the wall, you name it. After we signed the papers, we were so excited to put our mark on the house, we went straight to the Home Depot paint department and bought several gallons of paint. We spent the first week of home ownership pulling long hours painting the house every night after work. Wall by wall this house became our home.
Soon after moving in we started opening our doors to friends, family and hosting a weekly small group. Our dream had come true.
It wasn’t long after, the honeymoon phase of homeownership began to wear thin. Our list of projects began to grow by the day. One night we came home from work and as we turned the corner, I noticed our perfect tree in the side yard had dropped a limb on the neighbor’s house. The sickening feeling of oh God, I’m responsible flooded over me. Our dream was starting to look like a nightmare.
It was in that moment the stark difference between renting and owning became clear. As a renter, problems with the house/apartment never bothered me because it wasn’t my problem.
I now know the main difference between renters and owners: owners own their problems. This was now my problem.
Over the years I’ve learned to love the unexpected moments in my life. It’s times like these I look for teaching moments.
I believe what God wants for us is what he’s wanted since the early days of Israel: for us to become owners. To take possession of the promised land and own the problems along with the blessing.
(Numbers 13:26-32)
26 They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. 27 They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. 28 But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there.
26 They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. 27 They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. 28 But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there.
30 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.” 31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” 32 And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored.
(Numbers 14:5-8; 20-24)
5 Then Moses and Aaron fell facedown in front of the whole Israelite assembly gathered there. 6 Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes 7 and said to the entire Israelite assembly, “The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. 8 If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead usinto that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us.
5 Then Moses and Aaron fell facedown in front of the whole Israelite assembly gathered there. 6 Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes 7 and said to the entire Israelite assembly, “The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. 8 If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead usinto that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us.
20 The Lord replied, “I have forgiven them, as you asked. 21 Nevertheless, as surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the Lord fills the whole earth, 22 not one of those who saw my glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times 23 not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their ancestors. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it. 24 But because my servant Caleb has a different spiritand follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it.
Caleb saw the promised land through an owners mentality and because of that God blessed him.
Life is full of ups and downs, challenges and joys. The problems are ours to own but the good news is we don’t have to handle them alone. Owners own their problems, renters put them off for someone else.
