You Get What You Pray For!

Incredible, unexpected, amazing, miraculous, crazy. That's what we were thinking as we heard their story about God selling their house. "They" were a couple preparing to go into full time career missions. They were telling their story in our Sunday school class, and talking about how they didn't know how they'd overcome the obstacle of selling their house. The liability of their house proved to be no obstacle to God, and He handled it in a way that caused them (and us) to worship Him. They said a lot of other things during their presentation, but Erin and I were both impacted the most by the story of God selling their house. Yet, years later when we were faced with a similar obstacle, neither of us expected that our story could be like theirs. We were wrong.

When God revealed to us that He wanted us to be vocational missionaries, one of my biggest fears was what we'd do about our house. You see, we'd bought it as a "fixer upper" and it wasn't yet completely "fixed." We'd made some huge improvements over the years, but we'd run out of money for the other big projects and we put them on the "back burner" on the "20 year" plan. So when God changed our career direction, we found ourselves with a house that wasn't close to "ready to sell." Honestly, I feared that we'd not even "break even" and we'd somehow have to bring additional money to the closing of a sale! But God had a different idea.

Last November, we invited a realtor to visit and discuss a strategy for selling. He suggested that we walk through the house and make notes in each room. Then, after walking through the entire house, we could decide where best to spend our effort to prepare for sale. The first few rooms merited little comment, then we came to the bathroom. He pointed out issues like tub stains, ugly tub surround, and damaged countertop that would not show well. Then we stepped into the stairway, with stairs that were rough wood, walls and railings that were just exposed studs, and incomplete electrical wiring. His optimism was visibly dampened. We continued upstairs, and discovered the unfinished area that was to eventually become 2 more bathrooms and a master bedroom, but with an unfinished floor structure, safety issues, and other significant concerns, his shoulders began to slump. When he saw the basement, he dropped his head and said, "Don't spend any money on this house." Eventually, we made it out to the garage, and his perspective brightened a bit (the garage is very attractive with a second floor office, heat, and plumbing that would show very well.) Nevertheless, his advice was good. We should not spend money unless and until a market analysis showed that we'd be able to reasonably expect to get it back with a sale.

As you can imagine, it was a discouraging experience. In response, we began to pray and work. It was exceedingly obvious that we'd never be able to do it on our own, and God humbled us and compelled us to ask for help. In the spring, we began to work on the house in earnest, and over the course of about 3 months God transformed our house into the best condition it's been in since we purchased it. We had about 6 Saturday workdays where many friends came over to help. A couple days we had as many as 15 throughout the day! Those helpers finished the floor structure and corrected issues in the unfinished upstairs, finished the stairway, painted rooms, decluttered and packed, added landscaping, and painted the entire exterior of the house (just to mention a few projects!) They were the arms of God's grace and power wrapped around us, and God did the impossible through them! When the realtor returned to take pictures and list the house, he was amazed. He said he never believed the house could look like this!

On the last work day that we had a big group of people over to help, our faith was stretched. I gathered everyone for a prayer time before we began (as I'd done each time) to ask that God multiply our efforts. When we finished, my dad got our attention and said he had one more thing to pray. We all closed our eyes and he prayed, "God I know you're going to sell this house within 7 days of listing!" I confess that if eyes could "bug out" while closed, mine did! You get what you pray for?

I asked him later, "When you prayed that, what were you thinking?" He said simply, "That's easy. God just kept telling me throughout the whole prayer time, 'You need to demonstrate your faith. You need to demonstrate your faith. You need to demonstrate your faith." So he obeyed.

We authorized the realator to list the house and it showed up on the MLS on Wednesday May 24th, but there were no photos. All of the photos showed up and the listing was complete on Friday, May 26th. The following Friday, June 2nd, we were sitting with the realtor and signing papers to accept an offer. Not only did God supply a buyer just like my dad had prayed, He also supplied an offer that couldn't have been better! The buyer had nothing to sell, they offered $100 more than we listed for, there were no contingencies that would be hard to overcome, we selected the closing date, and they were a christian couple with two young daughters who knew from the moment they walked in that "this was the house for them!"

When we decided to sell, Erin started to pray for the buyer. She hoped it would be a family who would really like the house, appreciate what we'd done, and make great family memories just like we have. Well, you get what you pray for. We met the couple that's buying the house, and they are exactly what we've been praying for! For example, their daughters are excited about our little door under the stairs, and the man plans to use my garage office while he works from home just like I did! 

Ok. I confess. I don't actually believe that it's always true that "you get what you pray for." But sometimes God does give us what we ask Him for, and sometimes He gives us more, far more, than we expect! Telling you this story drives me to worship. I hope hearing it causes you to worship Him with us, and celebrate that God (whether we're comfortable or uncomfortable) doesn't govern the details of our lives accidentally! 

PS. God continues to amaze us in other ways too. The buyers of our house are related to my coworker and good friends with our good friends! And God sold our van in 6 hours, without even listing it on Craigslist, by bringing a buyer from across the street before I'd even finished parking it on the street with the "for sale" sign in the window!