Demon bugs

I remember how comfortable it felt owning our first house in Des Moines. It was a fixer-upper cosmetically. The major work of roofing, siding, furnace, etc. had been done by the previous owner. Only, that owner, stopped making payments and we were able to get a deal when we purchased the half fixed-up house. Fixing up the house in a quick time frame was stressful, but with a grant from the neighborhood revitalization program, easily affordable. At any point after we moved in we knew we could sell our house for twice what we paid. It was a secure feeling.

We knew when choose to buy a house in this town that it was risky. But we liked the idea of living in a town with big needs and prices were good here. Nice house for less money. We'd grown up in a world where real estate increased in value and figured the worse case scenario was that we would never make any money on our house. We couldn't fathom a world where housing prices could drop lower than they already were in this town.

You already know that our little worldview popped a long time ago. Housing prices did fall, just a few short months after we bought our home. And then they dropped.And dropped and dropped some more. Our house has lost a full 35% of its value. And while the rest of the country cautiously hopes the housing market will begin to climb again, without new employers, most people in this area skip those articles. I'd come to terms with the fact that my house was like a car--a depreciating asset. Never mind that we have replaced the roof, and the flat roof on the addition, the furnace, the water heater, the garage roof, the AC, the washing machine and garbage disposal. Never mind that we know the stove, dishwasher and fridge are on their last legs. We like our house and if, for some unknown reason, God called us out of this place. I guess it would be his job to get us out this house without a financial mess. You know, stand on the Rock. Do not worry about the things the world worries about.

Apparently God thought we could use a bit more faith stretching. We haven't been perfected enough (painfully true) so God sent a new trial--and as it true of most trials, I would prefer not to go through it. Or maybe this is spiritual warfare and little demons (literally they are little demons) are trying to destroy our faith. Either way, it's time once again to try and defeat the panic that is slowly raising in me.




Do you know what these are? Not flying ants. Think mud tunnels; think wood eaters; think "must disclose on a seller's statement." Think termites. Several pest control people I called, like the realtor that showed us the house, told us there weren't termites in the area. The ones in the know, said they had never heard of termites in this part of the city. Never. One of the guys who came to give me an estimate said I should play the lottery, because the odds of winning were as good as my odds of getting termites. Ha ha.

I was handling the news ok, until Tom left town and I got to usher four different companies through my house as they placed bids for treatments. And then today, one man actually crawled through the terrifying crawl space and said there were giant mud tunnels, about 6 inches wide over on the southeast wall. Ok, so truthfully, I've just been going on the assumption that we found the termites early and that there was no damage because the tunnels has been so small. Giant mud tunnel destroyed my assumption. And like I said, Tom is gone. Totally gone to the remote, unreachable wilderness of the Boundary Waters, hundreds of uninhabited lakes between Minnesota and Canada. When something goes wrong in the house, he frets and analyzes all possible scenarios so much that I don't have to.

So, it's time now to pull out a stronger faith, one that thrives without the security of a house that is a good investment and that doesn't depend on circumstances. That's the kind I like to think I have. I guess it's time to find out.
In the midst of this scenario, do you know what is going through my head?..a silly, version of a classic hymn that makes me laugh.

"On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is crumbling wood."