A Blessing In Disguise

Did you ever have a bad day, week or year and wonder why it happened? It seems that nothing went right and everything you did seemed to backfire. Someone might have wrecked a car, lost a job or a house. Someone might have broke a fingernail or missed seeing the Super Bowl game. I'm sure you have had such days, maybe many times. We all have.

Twenty two years ago this month I lost my two story 4,500 sq. ft. dream house that I had built with cash from a sale of a previous house. I had designed it with a beautiful 15' x 15' garden in the middle with a waterfall, trees and a skylight 20' above. Most of the rooms looked in on the garden, and the windows of the house looked out onto four man-made lakes that surrounded the house and property. It was a beautiful setting and the envy of many who came to visit us. This place was my pride and joy, but at the same time my marriage was gradually going downhill. And I wasn't happy on the inside even with all the appearances of success.

Like many other men, I started doing foolish things. One was to try to make more money, thinking that money would make us happier. My dad had learned about a high-risk investment with great tax right-offs and great profits. So I borrowed from the bank on the equity of our house. Two years had gone by and nothing happened with that investment. We both lost a big chunk of change. Then we heard of another company that offered a great product. The owner needed money to tide him over until some big Arab investors helped him finance a factory so he could manufacture his products. I believed this investment would make up for the first blunder, so I borrowed from a "legal" loan shark a bigger chunk, $30,000, because the banks wouldn't loan me the money. I was determined that nobody was going to stop me or tell me what I could or could not do. My wife was very upset with me and I made some foolish promises to her. She agreed to sign the papers, but told me she hoped it would all come crashing down on me.

The owner of the company told me he would need our money for only a few months at the most, then I would get our money back. He even signed a "personal note" stating that we would still get the full benefit as if we had left it in. I thought, "How could I lose?" But the big investors kept toying with the owner and eventually they walked away and he couldn't find anyone to fill in the gap.

It was getting harder for us to keep up with the bank loan and the private loan along with a new van we had just purchased. I had just come back to the Lord. Many men have more problems than they realize. However using borrowed money as my provider was not something God wanted me to continue to do. He wanted me to learn to trust him. But, somehow I thought God would just help me sell more paintings like he had the week I came back to Him. I had made almost $5000 that week and I thought he could do it again. I thought things had changed and God would continue to bless me, because I now loved him and told him that I was sorry for neglecting him. But, that was just a couple of mistakes, there were many others. He also wanted my trust and obedience.

It was the best time of the year for art shows, just before Christmas. I had three art shows in a row and I bombed with all three. I didn't make a single sale; I couldn't believe it; such a thing had never happened to me before. My prayers for help seemed to be falling on deaf ears. I didn't really comprehend God's word, and certain financial principles within it. However, I knew what the Bible said about PRIDE. Well, I was heading for a fall, big time. My house of cards was coming down and nothing was going to stop it, not even my prayers. God wasn't going to just slap my hand. It wasn't until we went to a seminar, and we heard and saw in the Bible how God felt about borrowing and the dangers attached to it. We heard that God honored those who put their faith and trust in him. Then we understood and truly repented. God still loved us, but he also wanted us to trust him.

That night after the seminar I told my wife I felt God wanted us to return the new van we had just purchased two months before; she agreed. When we arrived at the car dealership, they had never seen or heard of anyone doing that before. They told us, usually customers wait until the vehicle is repossessed. I felt God wanted me to give it back, and we would accept the loss of our down payment and other costs that we might have incurred. But, I told the dealership that we needed to obey God.

Next, I sold my new Apple computer that I had placed on a credit card; I sold it to a printing company who had just placed an order. Mine was less because I absorbed the loss of the down payment in order to eliminate the credit debt. We continued to live in the house for another year, unable to make any more payments because it had gone into foreclosure. During that time we were unable to sell the house no matter how we tried. Everyone loved it, but still no buyers.

We trusted God to provide a way and actually had an incredible amount of peace, despite our situation. We went looking a couple of times for a cheap place to rent. Most were boarded-up ex drug houses. However, with no income or money our looking was futile. Two days before the house was to be auctioned off, a man called and made us an offer. I prayed about it and the next day I accepted it. We got $10,000, a half up front, and he would pay the mortgage debts and penalties plus he gave us two more months to live in the house rent free. We would receive the rest of the money when we moved out from my dream house, from the house our daughter was raised in. We had lived there 7 years and it was built with cash.

Now the house was gone and we still owed $15,000 in other credit card debts, and we didn't know where we were going to live. We paid half the credit card debt, and lived on the rest. As desperate as our situation appeared we even tithed on the $10,000. And another thousand on a step of faith toward some mountain acreage we would eventually build a house next to, two and a half years later. Everything was in God's hands. And I trusted him 100%. We learned a number of important lessons through this situation, including, "In all things give thanks, for this is the perfect will of God." So the day we lost the house we got on our knees as a family and thanked God for his love and faithfulness.

I also wrote a letter to owner of the company we invested in and informed him we had no hard feelings toward him. We prayed God would bless him, and forgave him, then we tore up the personal contract that he had signed. I also told him it was our mistake, because we should have never borrowed in the first place. It is important to own up to your own mistakes instead of blaming others. Some people wonder how we could have done that, or believed that God was faithful to us despite losing the house.

Material things aren't as important to God as some people think. But a relationship based on trust is important, and we were now totally dependent on him. He would supply all our needs from now on. We didn't even know where we were going to live at the end of the month, and my wife's daycare had to end.

With neither of us having a regular job, God provided a house to rent for half the asking price just two weeks before we had to be out. (We felt lead to call my cousin.) It was a nice house that belonged to my uncle, he recently died, and his daughter had just chosen to rent it out instead of selling it.

While moving our belongings I felt God wanted me to take three big unused picture windows that a contractor had left at our house. God indicated that I would put them in a new house someday. That would be a real surprise considering, my wife and I had agreed, we would never borrow again. So I took them.

After three years and two more moves, God's words were fulfilled. I finally installed those three picture windows in the living room of a large but modest house we physically built with cash and the help of some friends God provided. We bought a 28' trailer, and the three of us lived in it next to the house while we built it. This took 2 years to the day. God also provided a truck to pull the trailer and to help with construction. It was a challenge, but all things are possible to them who love the Lord. The house overlooks a small lake on 4 1/2 acres. Thanks to God—and an small inheritance from another uncle's unexpected death—we had a new home.

Even where the house was built was a miracle of God's leading, because I had already drawn by faith the house plans not knowing where it was to be built. The property wasn't even for sale, but I called the owner and she said she had just called a Realtor to get an appraisal on her property. The house was designed to be built on a slope for a daylight basement. Her property was perfect, And the price I was hoping to pay was exactly what she wanted when I called her a couple days later. God provided everything—truck, trailer, the perfect place, all for the right price, to build our new house. God met all our needs and desires for our family. Which requires our obedience. When we got the inheritance, I asked God how I was to get a house? He told me to build it. That was not my first preference, but I obeyed and he helped.

Losing our previous dream house was a blessing in disguise, not because God gave us a new house but because we got to know first hand His awesome love and faithfulness when we put our complete trust in him. We would have never known this had he prevented us from loosing it. I probably would have thought somehow I had accomplished it on my own. In this way there was no doubt that God's word is true, when we really trusted and obeyed him. He has been our provider, and you can count on him too. He will be with you all the way.

Whatever your circumstances or problems, there is a lesson that God wants you to learn. He can turn any problem around and make something beautiful out of it, if you give him the chance. We just need to be patient and trust him. There have been other situations in our lives where God turned losses into gains. God allows trials and tests, even the ones of our own making, so that his glory will be revealed. I just gave you my example as to show you that nothing is impossible to them who love and obey the Lord. And we will all praise Him for it. Amen.