Ch.12
God
is
funny about money
Well
at least God has ideas about money which we find strange. His ideas
are, of course, the correct ones!
About
the time Sue and I were married we had done the sensible thing and
used our savings as a deposit on a home. All we could afford is a
one-bedroom unit in a new block which had been built just up the road
from where we lived in my parents old home. However it was a very
nice little unit, and we had it rented out which paid the loan
repayments on it. A very sensible arrangement. We loved houses, and
had every intention of working our way up to a much more expensive
house in this very desirable Sydney suburb.
As
well we had saved enough money for a planned holiday trip to see
England. As you recall from an earlier chapter, that was part of my
debate with God about going into theological college a year before
Sue graduated as a doctor: we would have to use that money to fund
ourselves the year in college!
God
was quite unmoved by our worldly view of how our money should be used
and managed. We did go into college. We did forgo our trip to
England. We also found it necessary to sell our little unit. Although
the bank actually owned most of it, prices had risen steeply in the
time we had it so it provided a substantial contribution to funding
us through college.
Over
the three month long vacation between second and third years I
managed to get a temporary job as an engineer. With this temporary
income, and Sue then working as a hospital doctor we looked a good
financial prospect to the bank – who didn't inquire to find out
that Sue was pregnant and going to stop work in a few months and I
was about to stop work to resume college studies. So they lent us
enough money to buy a sweet little three bedroom cottage on its
regulation quarter-acre of land in Turramurra not far from Sue's
parents home.
With
this rented out and paying itself off we could confidently look
forward to a little nest-egg growing for the time we retired and
needed a house of our own (Anglican clergy live in church provided
houses).
On the whole we thought we had been prudent, provident and rather
clever.
Then
came the situation at Morwell. The parish said it could not afford to
provide a house. We were young and idealistic. We also thought God
intended us to go there and that God wished us to accept these terms.
Ironically the minister I was curate under later told me I had been a
fool to accept and should have called the parish's bluff and demanded
my full rights. He said – not unkindly- that he hoped I had learned
my lesson about how ministers needed to stand up for their rights,
and would not be so naive in future. However we had accepted. We did
have a lovely start living in the old model town of Yallourn. But now
the crunch had come. We had to move from the Yallourn house so it
could be demolished. There was nothing in the vicinity of Morwell
that we could find to rent because of the huge power station
construction under-way.
There
were really only two choices. Ask the bishop to move us somewhere
there was accommodation or buy a house.
Morwell
was not a place we would choose to buy. It seemed, and indeed turned
out to be a place where house prices were static at best.
So
again we prayed and asked God for a sign. The only way the bank would
lend us money for a house in Morwell was if we sold the one we owned
in Turramurra. That did not make good business sense as Sydney house
prices were steadily rising and we rightly guessed would continue to
do so for decades to come.
So,
this was our 'sign' we asked from God. We would advertise our little
Turramurra house in the Saturday paper just once. We would put what
seemed to us a ridiculously high price on it. If he wanted us to buy
in Morwell would he please sell it that weekend. Sue's parents were
kindly fielding the enquiries.
Yes,
it sold that day for the price asked, in fact Sue's father said he
could have sold it twice over there were so many keen buyers.
So
we bough a dull but solid little three-bedroom house in Morwell. We
moved in, renovated, re-decorated and
found it fitted our needs very well. As well as our family need it
provided a venue for the 'twenties' youth group we started, and for
the women's group Sue began.
Looking
back: in worldly terms God may seem to have funny ideas about money,
but in reality it is we who have the wrong idea.
God,
if we let him, uses money to achieve what he wants done at the
present. We either want to hoard it against feared future needs or
spend it on what we think will achieve our desires. Often we even
more stupidly try to use it to achieve our idea of what God's plans
should be.
Looking
back I can see a bit more clearly that having us in Morwell God
pushed his plans a bit further in several disparate directions.
It
was a really good learning experience and training ground for us.
Naturally being young and straight out of college I thought I knew it
all. Naturally I was quite wrong – I had a great deal to learn! And
that town, church, and the minister I worked under was ideal for
filling in some of those gaps.
Our
youthful enthusiasm was not wasted. Sue, as well as working a couple
of days a week as a doctor started a women's prayer group and had a
profound effect among women in her age-group. I was able to carry
some of the load of grunt work of the parish – from pastoral
visiting through religious instruction in the neighbouring schools to
helping with the church's Sunday School.
I ran
a teenage youth group and Sue and I between us ran a 'twenties' youth
group. In both of these our youth, energy and enthusiasm for Christ
was used by God.
Looking
back I can also say two
things. One is that God is jealous in his love for us. He will not
tolerate other 'gods' rivaling him for our affection. He will not
tolerate other 'gods' enslaving us to do their bidding – he wants us to find how 'his service is perfect freedom'. He will not tolerate
other 'gods' in our thinking as our sustenance let alone salvation
for the future.
We
loved houses, houses in the leafy and beautiful garden suburbs we
knew. We depended on worldly wisdom and prudent money management for
our future. We had to be weaned off these rivals to God's superlative
place-by-right in our lives to find full joy in our relationship with
Him and to find the excitement and exhilaration life in
his 'fast-lane'.
Oh,
now that it is not an issue between us, God has not just let us have
but actively given us more enjoyment in beautiful houses than we
could have achieved in our old way of seeking it. God is gorgeous
like that. However that is all a tale for later.
Thirty-five
years on I still find God is funny about his use of money. It still
seems counter to our human inclinations. But his way works. That
again is a story to come.
