A game of musical chairs

Well, it's been a week since we sold our place; we started our search for a new home in earnest on Monday (there was nothing listed over the weekend) and it's been a little discouraging. The first two townhouses we looked at were hovels (the barn in the picture is in better shape than the dumps we looked at!). Ok, maybe I'm exagerating a bit, but the idea of living in a place where you could enjoy the smell of chicken fat from the KFC behind your home didn't appeal to us. Then came our dream home: a townhouse in a nice neigborhood and for a decent price. We even put a bid on it, and for $4000 more than the listed price. Seventeen bids were made, and the place sold for $15,000 more than the listed price.

We've both experienced the labor shortage here in Alberta, as we have put in lots of hours at our jobs because there's no one else to fill the vacancies. Now we're experiencing first hand a housing shortage. I knew that there were growing pains in the province, and I always thought that there was too much money in Alberta. Well, I think I've been proven right! It almost makes me wish for the enconomy to crash, but that would just create other kinds of problems. We remember the recession back in the early 90s, so I don't think I really want to go back there...

Were we naive to think we could sell high and buy low? Perhaps, and we can't be bitter over it because we sold our own home for a tidy sum. What does suprise me is the sense of peace and joy I have in all of this. Last night Angel & I prayed in faith, asking for this townhouse but also trusting God with whatever outcome. This morning I prayed again for this specific home, and I sensed God say to me, "But what if I have something better for you?" Now I don't know what God means by better, and often times I thought that what God considered to be better was to me the short end of the stick. It's only through hindsight that we've come to see why God closed certain doors, and that God sends us blessings in disguise.

What's really neat is knowing how many people out there are praying for us, cheering us on and even wanting us to be their neighbors! "Hey, why don't you come live where we are?" seems to be the question we hear a lot. It's so nice to be loved and wanted by people, but even more so by the God who pulled off the greatest real estate deal in history by promising Abraham, Isaac & Jacob a land that flowed with milk & honey. Yes, buying a house these days is a game of musical chairs; the melody has stopped and everyone is scrambling for a seat before they fall on their... But somewhere, somehow, God has a place for us to sit (and sleep, shower, hang our hat...)