let your mercy rain on lawless street
It's funny the things you think of when you find yourself in transition, as we are, from one home to another. I should probably be carefully sorting through things, using my Martha Stewart checklist for moving, yet my thoughts are other places.
As I sit out on my deck, I know the days are numbered to do this. After 14 years here, I feel as though I know the squirrels and birds by name in my neighborhood. I know many of the dogs. Less of the people. Just a bunch of reclusive souls looking for quiet.
I am so thankful to God for the years He has given us in this peaceful home. Tonight my mind gathers the snapshots of birthday parties, Christmases, sleepless nights with babies Syd and Ben... more sleepless nights in intercession. I think of the small prayer meetings we have had here, each one so precious as the Holy Spirit came to fill us with His presence. Prayer meetings for Matt Carter as he went back to be tested for cancer again and again, each time with God answering resoundly with a "you DON'T have cancer!" I don't think there is any room in this house that I have not been facedown or on my knees or with hands in the air as God led it.
I think of friends who have come to anoint this house with oil, of the many times I have done it myself. I think of the backyard, of our boys catching fireflies, of Moose chasing frogs. Friends and family making s'mores, laughing around our firepit. I think of my antique roses and wonder who will take care of the little garden in front, who will enjoy the shade of the elm tree I think of as almost family.
As any adventure driven by God, it's been completely amazing to see Him work. We quickly got a buyer for our house, and we began literally to throw things in storage to make the move-out date they wanted. Then came their inspector, who I suspect wants to work for CSI. He used the phrases "suspected damage" and "most likely concealing" way too much. He basically found nothing good about our house except the roof, and I'm surprised he didn't say there were demons underneath that. It was that bad and the buyer couldn't get out fast enough.
But Steve and I had prayed this house would bless the next owner, and we knew there was nothing but minor repairs to be made. So we left it on the market, made the repairs and got our next offer for the full price of the house. God is so good, so undeniably God.
A while back I wrote of our budding dream to live in the Mueller project, a dream God has grown and given us hope for. As our community pastor also applied for the neighborhood, I asked Jesus to let us be there together, to be a part of taking that neighborhood for Him in this city I desperately love. And as my good friend Ronald Smith pointed out, when my boys get hurt they can just walk themselves to the children's hospital in the neighborhood. That may or may not be a comment on my parenting skills, but I'm thinking children's hospital could equal healing ministry, whatever that looks like. But today we found out we are 86th on a list for 52 homes, as we picked Meritage as our builder. There is a chance we could make it in, perhaps in the second phase. And live on Lawless Street. I mean, who doesn't want to live on Lawless Street in Austin, Texas?
So the story continues... it will be truly God's hand should He bring us there, as we have no back-up plan, as we wait for this contract on our house to be finalized, as we hold loosely to everything He has given us and has yet to give.
I pray to God—my life a prayer—
and wait for what he'll say and do.
My life's on the line before God, my Lord,
waiting and watching till morning,
waiting and watching till morning.
O Israel, wait and watch for God—
with God's arrival comes love,
with God's arrival comes generous redemption.
No doubt about it—he'll redeem Israel,
buy back Israel from captivity to sin.
Psalm 130, vs 5-8 (the Message)
As I sit out on my deck, I know the days are numbered to do this. After 14 years here, I feel as though I know the squirrels and birds by name in my neighborhood. I know many of the dogs. Less of the people. Just a bunch of reclusive souls looking for quiet.
I am so thankful to God for the years He has given us in this peaceful home. Tonight my mind gathers the snapshots of birthday parties, Christmases, sleepless nights with babies Syd and Ben... more sleepless nights in intercession. I think of the small prayer meetings we have had here, each one so precious as the Holy Spirit came to fill us with His presence. Prayer meetings for Matt Carter as he went back to be tested for cancer again and again, each time with God answering resoundly with a "you DON'T have cancer!" I don't think there is any room in this house that I have not been facedown or on my knees or with hands in the air as God led it.
I think of friends who have come to anoint this house with oil, of the many times I have done it myself. I think of the backyard, of our boys catching fireflies, of Moose chasing frogs. Friends and family making s'mores, laughing around our firepit. I think of my antique roses and wonder who will take care of the little garden in front, who will enjoy the shade of the elm tree I think of as almost family.
As any adventure driven by God, it's been completely amazing to see Him work. We quickly got a buyer for our house, and we began literally to throw things in storage to make the move-out date they wanted. Then came their inspector, who I suspect wants to work for CSI. He used the phrases "suspected damage" and "most likely concealing" way too much. He basically found nothing good about our house except the roof, and I'm surprised he didn't say there were demons underneath that. It was that bad and the buyer couldn't get out fast enough.
But Steve and I had prayed this house would bless the next owner, and we knew there was nothing but minor repairs to be made. So we left it on the market, made the repairs and got our next offer for the full price of the house. God is so good, so undeniably God.
A while back I wrote of our budding dream to live in the Mueller project, a dream God has grown and given us hope for. As our community pastor also applied for the neighborhood, I asked Jesus to let us be there together, to be a part of taking that neighborhood for Him in this city I desperately love. And as my good friend Ronald Smith pointed out, when my boys get hurt they can just walk themselves to the children's hospital in the neighborhood. That may or may not be a comment on my parenting skills, but I'm thinking children's hospital could equal healing ministry, whatever that looks like. But today we found out we are 86th on a list for 52 homes, as we picked Meritage as our builder. There is a chance we could make it in, perhaps in the second phase. And live on Lawless Street. I mean, who doesn't want to live on Lawless Street in Austin, Texas?
So the story continues... it will be truly God's hand should He bring us there, as we have no back-up plan, as we wait for this contract on our house to be finalized, as we hold loosely to everything He has given us and has yet to give.
I pray to God—my life a prayer—
and wait for what he'll say and do.
My life's on the line before God, my Lord,
waiting and watching till morning,
waiting and watching till morning.
O Israel, wait and watch for God—
with God's arrival comes love,
with God's arrival comes generous redemption.
No doubt about it—he'll redeem Israel,
buy back Israel from captivity to sin.
Psalm 130, vs 5-8 (the Message)