This place we currently live, is really God’s.  Everything we have is his.  He can take away and he can give.  In our case, he can RENT!

The earth is the LORD’S, and all it contains, the world, and those who dwell in it.  – Psalm 24:1-2 (NASB)

There is a book called, God’s Smuggler by Brother Andrew.  It is an older book about Andrew a missionary that lived his life in faith.  He Depended upon what he calls “The Royal Way,” Andrew would always be in complete trust that God would provide for him from something as simple as toothpaste to something larger like school fees paid by their deadlines. He gives one testimony about a homeless friend of his who had come looking for him for the same amount of money that Andrew had been waiting on. As they were talking, there on the ground was the one British shilling they were both hoping for and what only Andrew could see. Instead of keeping it for himself however, he gave it to his friend, knowing that God doesn’t need or want us to be digging around in the dirt looking for extra change. He’s going to provide for us!

I know I am not yet at that point in my life but I really look at it as such an example to try and follow.  Obviously, Jesus is the prime example of this type of faith.  Melissa and I have been praying on faith that he would reveal the right choice for us on our townhouse.

We didn’t feel right about doing a short-sale (or attempting one).  We have enough money to make our mortgage payments and our realtor was advising us to miss payments and stash some money off into another bank account.  In the back of our mind we kept thinking of that book and remembering that we are servants of God. We should not need to hide or do anything that is not with full integrity.  At that point, we started praying about renting our townhouse.  It’s such a hard decision because typically tenants are not very kind to a rental home.

A couple days ago a girl called asking to checkout the townhouse.  No problemo, come on over.  I had just put it up for rent and had four other emails that needed responding to as well.  She happened to catch our last name and asked if I was the brother of Rich.  Umm, yeah!  Apparently, she played broomball and hung out a lot with his group of friends while at Bethel University!  She came over and really liked the place but she was looking at a bunch of other places.  Later that night she called and said she would be interested!  Today, Kari and her husband’s parents came over to pick up the lease agreement and talk about the details.  I also found out, the parents have a daughter, Megan, who I knew well during college!  They are all just such a quality, God honoring family.  The dad is a pastor and the mother works in the medical field.  We all prayed before departing.

If you know anything about renting, it is the importance in having *good* renters.  I really believe that God makes things work out in ways like this just to show who he really is 🙂  Again and again he takes care of us.