A Day in the Life of...

So like I said before I bought a new home.  Now in all seriousness it isn’t a new home, it was built in 1957.  It’s interesting when you look at a home that was built 50 years ago.  Just the design of the house and the utilities that are there are totally different from what we have in homes built today.  I look at my old home and see how small the bedrooms are and how there is only one common area, the living room.  Now my older Sister bought a very nice brand new house.  She had to wait for it to be finish even after she had signed the papers for it.  Her house is around 3 times bigger than mine.  I have a 1000 square foot house so hers is around 3000 square feet.  So my house was built with the bare minimum in mind.  There was no thought of people living in their bedrooms all day.  People worked, went to school, played outside and went camping and all that fun stuff. 

I remember as a young kid living at my Grandmothers house, the older folks would have neighborhood BBQs.  Now this is something I have never experience since I was a kid.  I think it is an awesome thing to have.  Having a community that does things together and looks out for each other is something I think our generation is totally lost on. 

Back to my sister’s house, it is a very nice house and has lots of room for her new family.  Her house is huge though, I think too big.  You can easily hide from everyone in that house.  Now my house on the other hand is small and all you can do is run away if you want to hind from the rest of the house hold.  My sister’s house is also designed to be a place of seclusion, you can easily hop into your car in the garage and then take off do your business out of the house and not interact with anyone and come back home in your garage close the door and never talk to your neighbors.  Do we really not want to get to know the people living next to us?  It reminds me of a Nekromantix song; “What’s on your neighbors BBQ” you could be living next door to some psycho…  Really think about it, I do.  Maybe that makes me the psycho. 

So where am I going with all of this.  I think our grandparents had a better grip on community than we do or ever will have.  Technology is a huge problem of course for us.   America has made life all about material possession; you have to have the newest piece of technology to be hip or cool.  TV is also a huge drain on life.  I find myself at other people house to hang out with them and after we chat for a few minutes somehow the TV gets turned on and we turn into mindless drones watching some nonsense show.  Now is this what really makes our happy?  I don’t think so, God made us to be social people.  So why aren’t we being the community he designed us for.  I find myself in this position more times than not.  I even gave up on TV and movies because I just sit there and do nothing.   Now don’t get me wrong I love a good movie that is funny or exciting but more times than not I find that I could have been doing something more constructive than watching TV.  There are millions of lonely people out there just looking to have a person talk and listen to them.  Jesus knew this and did it better than anyone.  So why aren’t we following in his steps. 

So two months ago I bought my first home.  It was and is an exciting time in my life.  Many people have congratulated me on the purchase of my new home. Which is boosts my self esteem up a lot.  But, really all I did was sign the papers.  I wasn’t really looking to buy a home at this point in my life.  I never expected to even be able to buy a home at this time.  With the way the economy is here in California and how the housing market has been in the last few years with just about any house being in the $300,000 market or higher.

Now the housing market is in the toilet and homes are back to a somewhat reasonable pricing area simple working people can look into buying a home if they can get a loan.  Now getting a loan for $140,000 isn’t as easy as it used to be.  The economy is crap right now no matter what the news tells us.

So can I really admit that I got my loan for this house just because I think I’m awesome?  No, I can’t.  If it was just because of that I would be penniless and living on the streets most likely.  Thank God he loves me though and wants good things for me.  He is the one that keeps me employed even when business is slow.  He is the one that helps me pay off my bills and puts food on my table.  If it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t have any of the wonderful things I have today.

So when I think about this cool house that I own I have to remember it isn’t really MY house it is HIS.  So I do what I can with it, I fix it up and try to make it better than it was when I was handed it.  My current situation reminds me of Matthew 25:14-30 the Parable of the Three Servants.   I have been given this house from God aka the Master and I am just his Servant who is taking care of his property while he is gone.  Now I don’t know how long I will be living here at this house.  I’d love to say that this is my home for the rest of my life.  But, I know that if God tells me my time in this home is up and I am to move somewhere else then who am I to argue with God.  But, while I am in charge of his home I want to make sure that I take care of it and bring it to its full glory.  I want my home to be a place I can bring people over and have fellowship and have good times at.  I want to be able to show people the love that God shows to his children and how he takes care of them.

So to close this, when people tell me of how proud they are of me and congratulate me on my new home I try to make sure to tell them that I didn’t make it happen but that my Father got it for me to live in.