Six days before Thanksgiving, something was discovered in my home that was completely hidden from us. My husband and I were totally unaware of it until I found it when I decided to cook some vegetable soup. Putting away the crockpot, I noticed the shelf paper had slid in the cabinet where I store it. In my effort to adjust the paper, I discovered mildew growing underneath it as well as water sitting on the surface. The strangest thing was this was a floor kitchen cabinet. Because we live in a home that was built in 1977, the cabinet was wood and a hole was in this particular one, where a wire for an outlet was running through. Not sure what I was dealing with, I left everything as it was, until Thomas, my husband, could check it out. When he looked at it, he thought it was definitely odd too, for how did water puddle up in the cabinet. Looking through the door of the crawl space under the house, no water was seen and it looked as if everything was in order. So I called a builder I had heard about, who just so happened to work for a fire and water restoration company on the side. He came out and was perplexed too, but was not able to crawl under the house that day. Four days later, we were hit with the surprising news that our hot water heater, which unfortunately had the pressure valve vented underneath the house, had been releasing pressure and now water damage to the floors was extensive and it looked as if the kitchen cabinets and the hardwood floors would need to be replaced. Until it all dried out, we wouldn't fully know the extent of the damage. The most frightening news is, the water heater could have blown up or caught on fire. We were blessed and protected to say the least!!!
A few hours later, it hit me that this could be an answer to a prayer. For two years we had wondered why finding a final home at the beach to move all of our earthly belongings in had not worked out Why we had ended up with this home being our only choice when we knew renovations would be involved to totally make it work for us. After 9 corporate moves and 5 additional personal moves in 28 years of marriage, building homes and renovating them, we were tired and just ready to be settled in a finished home. Knowing God knows the desires of our heart, I just could not understand why our desire didn't come to pass so that we would have more time to focus on serving Him rather than being caught up in fixing up another earthly dwelling. It seemed like the perfect plan, I just could not understand why God didn't think so. It was so depressing that every time I thought about renovating, I found comfort in eating as a way to get some want fulfilled. Instead, that satisfaction was temporal and the results of weight gain made me feel worse. Until last week, I just could not justify why the Lord would have me spend money on a house I would live in for just 10 years. And yet, selling, closing and moving costs for yet another move, could be as much as a possible renovation. My vision for something can be quite large and the vision for this home ran into estimations that could far exceed resell value. As my hopes were dashed and I began to rethink about what the Lord was saying, I began to have vision as I looked around at how to renovate in a less expensive way. I was in the process of seeing this vision when the damage the hot water heater had done was discovered. I began to wonder if the Lord confirming that indeed a renovation would take place and He knew what needed to be done. I felt as if I had been pounding on heaven's door and indeed my request had been answered. Several times since I have been in this home, I have heard from the Lord concerning this house, but wasn't quite sure what He meant. Once I was told that I would have to do one more renovation and another time I heard it would be an offering to this community. And more importantly, before I left my last home, I heard that I could not live outside of my community and my home had to be bigger than I desired because people were coming to my house. Of course, I thought I must have misunderstood, since none of those things made any sense in light of what I sensed I wanted to do for God and our financial desire to downsize. Our best intentions can block the flow of God's anointing in our lives. Total surrender, which I had been focused on for the last few months, intentionally must come before He can do through us what He had intended all along. The gifts God has given me are never wasted and one of them is to prepare homes for those to follow me or for redemption for those who had lived in them. I have seen the fruits of that gift and truly they are God stories of His amazing plans. Another gift is hospitality and providing a place and atmosphere for God to do great things in the hearts of His people. Being in this home at this time is important to His kingdom agenda. Being fully surrendered to His purposes is my part for its fulfillment.
Ann Wallace (c) 2015
