[ Saturday, May 22, 2010 ]
God told me to buy a house.
Now, I'm not the kind of person who would normally say that kind of thing. However, it seems pretty clear this time. I was hopping off the bus, and thinking about the fact that someone I know has a lot of investment property. Three of the units they own are in the same block of flats. As I hopped off the bus, I thought "perhaps I should buy a flat there too. But there's never any for-sale signs..." Lo and behold, as soon as I thought this, I noticed there was a brand new for sale sign outside one of the units.
Now this kind of coincidence is certainly not enough to convince me that God is speaking. However, it made me investigate buying properties, and I discovered the bank would lend me much more than I expected, and that I could get a significantly-priced property without affecting my monthly cashflow or after-tax and after-mortgage income very much.
I was still wondering about this while listening to the sermon at church, when he looked straight in my direction, and spoke these words - "It's not your idea. It's God's idea".
Ok, God. I'll follow. But....
To buy the house would mean liquidating most of our share portfolio to pay the deposit. And the share market has been in freefall the past two weeks.
To buy the house means trusting that the current housing bubble will not burst.
To buy the house means trusting God to find good tenants.
Well, we engaged a buyer's agent who found a house that looks good, in an area that, from his explanations, sounds like it will grow. One evening, we were able to view the house, and our buyer's agent negotiated with the seller's agent and the seller so that the deal was signed the very evening we went to look. The buyer's agent said it was a 1 in 20000 chance that the deal gets sealed so quickly and nicely. Fortunately it did, my wife suddenly had to fly off to attend a funeral the very next day.
So I do trust God - in at least part of me - that this is his idea to buy the house. This means trusting him to provide all the necessary finance. Watching the share market go down last week meant every day pleading with God about finances. I've rarely worried about finances in the past, and there's no reason for me to worry about it now. If this purchase really is God's idea, he will make it work out, finance and all.
I had this conversation with God while worrying, asking him if I should quickly sell the shares to stop any further losses.
"Is buying the house my idea?"
"Yes, yours"
"Do you know what's going to happen [in the stock market]?"
"No, I don't"
The implication? Stop worrying. I've never really worried about finances in the past, yet somehow I find myself more worried now. Is this just a bigger tes, or have I somehow lost some of the trust I had in the past? Either way, this is an opportunity to see God work and increase in faith.
Mike [4:44 PM]
