Divine Accounting

Russ landed an interview with the company in Arizona just a week or two after he got laid off. The phone interview was long.  I mean really long—90 minutes.  And it seemed to go very well.

We talked about moving to Arizona.  I looked at houses on the internet and tried to resign myself to living in a desert.  But there was something that kept me from really believing that the Arizona job would happen, and that was the amount of money sitting in our bank account.  We had money from his severance and money from the stock options that we’d been able to sell.  And at that point, less than a month into unemployment, most of it was still sitting there.

I remember telling him that I just couldn’t see that he was going to lose his job, get another job right away, and us be left with all of this money.  It just didn’t seem to be the way Heavenly Father usually works.

As you know, Russ did not get the job in Arizona, and it wasn’t for another 6 weeks that he was offered the job with Intel.  Eventually unemployment benefits kicked in and that helped with expenses, and our bank balance still seemed relatively healthy.

Once we decided when Russ would start work (Feb 21st) and when we would put our house on the market (beginning of March) it became obvious that we had a problem.  Normally we are relatively successful DIY-ers . We have replaced kitchen cabinets, installed new countertops, installed and tiled around a new bathtub, tiled a bathroom floor.  As we neared Russ’s departure date and the stress level ratcheted up we were forced to come to the realization that we simply could not DIY all that was left to be done. 

And so we started hiring people.  We hired a handyman.  (I’d never realized just how handy Russ is until I faced paying someone to do everything he couldn’t do.)  We hired someone to clean up the yard and make it look nicer.  We hired someone to paint and paint and paint. 

As I started realizing how much it was going to cost to pay someone to do all of these things I started to panic.  Sure, there was still money in the bank.  But it was going to cost a LOT do to all of these things.  One afternoon I decided that maybe I could paint the trim in the downstairs to save some money.  Ann & I spent 4 hours (4 hours!) prepping and painting and in the end only got the trim in the kitchen painted.  I was exhausted and humbled.  There was just no way that I could do it.

I finally decided that the only way to stop the panic was to write down what the expenses were going to be, and to make a list of what everything was going to cost.  And guess what—it looks like there should be enough money.  Just enough money to do everything that needs to be done to sell the house.

I’ve decided that I need to trust the Divine Accountant a little better.  I need to trust that what He gives us will be sufficient, that it will last as long as it needs to. As much as I hate it I can feel that His plan all along was not to fund another Hawaiian vacation, but to provide us with the resources (both time and money) to be able get from point A (this life) to point B (our new life in Oregon.) 

I think He is showing me in yet another way that His grace is truly sufficient…