I blogged about this once before, I’m sure I did. Unfortunately, me, being me, gave it some obscure title, didn’t put it in any kind of category, and now can’t remember when it was. Oh well.
You get to hear this story again. I don’t mind. It’s a good one.
About three years ago I was pegging the washing on the line when God spoke to me quite clearly. I’d been praying (complaining to Heaven?) about our financial situation, and telling God how I felt about it honestly. I can’t honestly remember if I asked for anything or not. It was a washing prayer, a conversation like you’d have with your dad sitting on the patio chair, it wasn’t anything big or super-spiritual. But God spoke to me.
Now that in itself is possibly a bit contentious to some of you. God spoke to you Megan? At the clothesline? While you were pegging washing??!! Was the shrubbery on fire over in the corner? Did the bedsheet suddenly show the face of an angel? Did the Heavens open and a dove descend (and poop on your newly-washed trousers)?
No. Now shut up and let me finish. What do you think the virgin Mary was doing when the angel Gabriel appeared to her? Sitting around waiting for a miracle? I doubt it. She was probably pegging washing as well.
So God spoke to me. Well, at least, this thought popped into my head. (Aha! See, I can hear you scoffing again! Stop it! Sometimes that’s how God speaks to me. Seriously. And I’ve been listening for enough years to figure out pretty well by now what’s God, what’s me-having-random-thoughts, and what’s something else. Do I get it wrong sometimes? Yes, but that’s another story).
The thought was this, and this is also how I knew it was God: it wasn’t anything I’d ever think by myself. It was far too out-there for me to even imagine; if it were MY mind I’d make up something much more sensible, like “you’ll be provided for always”, or “don’t worry”. No. This is the thought that entered my head:
“I’m going to pay your mortgage off in three years.”
Oh.
Now the first thing I thought of was the bible story of Abraham and Sarah, when God spoke to Abraham and said “I’m going to give you a son, even though you’re like, flippin’ ANCIENT and would be pretty much considered dead if you lived in the 21st century” (yes that is the Megan Sayer paraphrase), and how his wife cacked herself over it. And I thought: Don’t laugh.
I didn’t. I swallowed hard and said out loud, to the washing in general, “thank you.” And then I went inside and told my husband. (To his credit, he didn’t laugh either.)
Now, here’s some stuff that I believe: I believe that God is completely in love with us, his people, whether we know him or not, and whether we believe in Him or not (no, I’m not here to get into a theological argument of “if God loves us so much then why…” because I love MY children too, and that can’t fact alone doesn’t stop them from whacking each other with sticks) I believe He likes to talk to us. The day my nominally Catholic neighbour told me that she woke up one morning and thought “my ex-husband is going to call me today” and he did – I believe that was God telling her that. There are heaps of those experiences going round, for believers and non-believers alike. I believe it’s God, just like I believe that sometimes the way God speaks to us isn’t with words at all.
All that happened way back in 2010. My husband was working a part-time job and ran a small business. My youngest was two, and I was a stay-at-home mum with no income. Our mortgage payments were certainly not huge by mortgage standards, but they took up a lot of our small income, and we were about seven years in to a 30-year mortgage.
We made the last payment a week ago. I won’t bore you with technicalities, but in about six weeks we get to go into the bank and do all the paperwork we need to close it forever.
Three years.
It’s okay. You can laugh now. Those words were true.
I’m going to go peg some more washing this morning (like I do every morning), and I’m going to look up to the Heavens again and say a big and heartfelt THANK YOU. And let me encourage you, my friend. Go peg some washing yourself. Go get honest with an empty patio chair. Pretend there’s someone sitting in it that loves you with a wild abandon. And, if unbidden thoughts of goodness and hope enter your brain don’t discount them. Don’t laugh. They may well be true.
Megan Sayer 
Isn’t God kind! A perfect reminder that God always looks after his children!
That’s it Georgia. Exactly. It’s been a funny time. I’ve had to stop and say “Why God? Why would you do that for us?” and the only answer is because it was necessary for where we need to be to fulfill God’s call on our lives. I’ve discovered that I’m as grateful for those hard times–those times when we were trusting God for our weekly provisions–as I am for this new time of financial blessing. God is good All the time.
Yes, you did post this before but yes it is worth hearing again. Especially with this wonderful ending. I am so happy for you. And yes I do believe God speaks to us because he has spoken to me and I know when it is God in just the way you do. It takes me by surprise – it is a message I would never think of giving myself. It is usually outside my belief system.
Thanks Pat. Don’t you just love it when God says random things like that? Don’t you love it even more when you believe them?
Awesome testimony Megan! Praise God! But the thing that stood out to me most was this: “I love MY children too, and that can’t fact alone doesn’t stop them from whacking each other with sticks.” What a fantastic yet simple answer to one of the most challenging questions out there. Love it!
Thanks Amanda! Yep, praise God indeed!!
(and I really should go back and correct that extra word in the bit you quoted. Oops! Can you tell I don’t edit my blog posts?)
Ha. I didn’t even notice the typo.
Yay!
Yup. That’s our God 🙂
I should mention as well. My husband STILL has a part-time job and runs a small business on the side. I now work about ten hours per fortnight.
It ain’t anything we did…
How wonderful, and what a hopeful story of a loving God!
Mine is a bit different. God’s decided to put me through the wringer, and let my requirement that I hold a good attitude be a reflection of His glory and love. This came to me, and it was honestly not a happy thing at the time.
He has, however, provided compensation that I would have missed had I been able to successfully resist His assignment. Breaths are sweeter, when it seems they might be limited.
The end of my old life was hard, but I can see now that it was a spiritual dead end. Now that I’m facing a practical ‘dead end’, my spiritual life has come alive.
And it’s even a good pun!
Oh yes. Oh boy. Don’t you just wish God would sit you down sometimes and say “Okay, so I know this is going to hurt, but look what’s going to happen…”
Except we wouldn’t get it. We so wouldn’t. And we’d still say “But God, NO…”
His way is perfect, and right. Man it’s taken me a lot of years to learn that!
I may have to go buy a clothesline.
Seriously, though, that is an awesomely amazing story!! I love to hear testimonies like that. God is so awesomely good! Why doesn’t he do that for me? Who knows? He does other things for me. As Jesus said to Peter when Peter asked him, “What about that guy over there?,” pointing at John, “What is that to you?” I get my miracles, you get yours. And that’s the beauty of God, and what allows me to celebrate yours with you.
I hope that made sense. 😀
That’s a good reference Jeff, I like that.
I’ve struggled with a funny kind of guilt thing over it too, why me? That must sound so crazy, but it’s hard when I hear so many people struggling so much, just as we’ve done over the years, and here’s us receiving this blessing. A dear friend of mine lost her house recently, and here’s us paying ours off. That’s not been easy.
The place I’ve had to come to is summed up well in that scripture you just quoted. Everybody’s journey is different. I’d dearly love to quit now, buy a yacht and go live on a nice island somewhere (oh, I am…hello Tasmania!), but in reality God has given us very specific callings, and this is His positioning us for the next part of the journey. The story doesn’t end here. This is just the beginning…
Amen!! 🙂
Never mind how it happened, congrats! Paying off your mortgage, especially while the kids are so young is a wonderful thing. 🙂
Yes, yes it is! Thanks Jennifer!