I was homeless for a month.
A few years ago, my wife and I were preparing to go overseas when we were informed that we’d need to leave our rental. Stressed, we packed in a hurry and found somewhere to temporarily store our earthly belongings. Then, we boarded a plane and left, with no home to return to when we came back.
“Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord” (Psalm 27:14).
I don’t know about you, but I find it difficult to practise this imperative. Especially in times of stress, my knee-jerk reaction is to try and “fix” everything myself. But when I was thrust into this situation, I was suddenly unable to do anything. While I was overseas, I had no way to look for house listings, attend open homes or do anything else. Yet, behind the scenes, God was working. When we returned a month later, a friend offered us a place to stay free-of-charge while we looked for a more permanent solution. A church member offered to keep our belongings in her shed for as long as we needed. We were also incredibly blessed to find a new home in a surprisingly short period of time.
Whenever I’m tempted to misplace my trust in God for my own cleverness, I’m forced to remember stories like this. It’s like a reprimand—even in the midst of my worry, God takes care of me. Of course, sometimes things don’t work out but that doesn’t stop Him from being a good God. It’s in moments of disappointment that I need to remember this: that He’s good in the good times, as well as in the bad. Or, as a favourite worship song of mine goes: “In the valley, You are worthy You are good when life is not” (Rend Collective, Choose to Worship). Even in the valley, may our prayer be the words of David in the verse preceding the one we opened with:
“I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” (Psalm 27:13).
This piece was originally written for Record eNews—the Adventist Record weekly eNewsletter. Subscribe for free for more exclusive content.
