Selling / Renting of the Houses

Today we had our Communitas Launch Team meeting. We have it every Sunday from 3 - 6 pm. At first I thought, 3 hours sure is a long time to meet. What the heck are we going to do for 3 hours! Then we started meeting and it's just not long enough : ) We give updates about where we are with things, pray, and meet with our Teams. Today we had a lengthy discussion about the housing market. I think we do just about every other time we meet. It's hard not to in this market. I think just about everyone of us is going to loose real money (as in, not just a "paper" loss) but actually have to come to closing with money. For this reason, many people are choosing to rent instead. Even renting our house, we are taking a loss. But at least it is a smaller amount spread out over the year as opposed to bringing one lump sum to closing. There is also the hope that someday the market will rebound enough that we can sell it and make the loss back. I've posted before about our personal journey with this. We were the first ones on the team to rent so it's still a hot topic. For us, it finally came to a point were we just had to give it up to HIM. When we finally did that, we found what I pray to be the perfect renters for us. Sure, we are losing money monthly. But I try to look at it as any other investment. We drove by the old house yesterday and today to see if our renters made it here from California yet. They still haven't. I pray that they have a safe journey here. We keep calling it the "old house". Pete realized that today and said we should really start to call it the "rental property". It's not our home anymore. We don't have a "home" yet. We are still living with our gracious in-laws while Pete tries to find a job in Manhattan. Back to my original point. The team is of course having trouble coming to terms with what might be their fate with their home. Then Jen said, "I know God loves us. He is smiling down upon us. He will do something amazing with our houses." Maybe that is not an exact quote but it's as best as I remember it. We need to give HIM the chance to show HIS glory and do miraculous things with our houses.

Then I came home. I didn't really feel like doing anything but I thought I could do some blog reading. I didn't really feel like doing that either. I saw Lynnae had a new post today in my Google Reader so I clicked on it. It was a quick read but really spoke to me. God has spoken to me through her before. Be sure to visit Lynnae to see what she had to say today but here is the verse that she had posted:

19"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

My heart is already in Gramercy Park. I know it's not going to always be easy either. It's going to be expensive too. But I'm finally learning a lesson that's long been due to learn. Money doesn't really mean all that much. Sure it may make things more comfortable here on earth. But everyday I'm becoming more concerned about storing treasures up in heaven as opposed to here on earth. This is quite a HUGE step for me! I'm disappointed that we are losing money on our house. But it really doesn't matter. Not in the grand scheme of things. I know HE will provide all that we need. Jesus Christ is the only bread that we need to live. Pastor taught on that this morning. But that is another post.