A time to buy...

“Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.” [Genesis 12:1]

‘Then Joshua said to the children of Israel: “How long will you neglect to go and possess the land which the Lord God of our fathers has given you?”’ [Joshua 18:3]

We have been on the lookout for land to build our base. Contemplating the process of buying land and building has stirred up mixed emotions in me.

I found myself somewhat hesitant to commit to owning land and being responsible for a permanent, physical structure. There was something very final about that. Owning property would tie me down to this land. It would seal my commitment to living here for many years. There would be no turning back!

The irony of the situation did not escape me. I thought about my recent past in Singapore, where the direct opposite was true. Then, commitment to God meant a conscious, deliberate choice not to own or commit to anything that would tie me down permanently, or make it difficult for me to live on a much lower salary. I had grown accustomed to saying “no” to owning things. Then, that was the expression of faith.

Now, the opposite was required of me. Walking in faith and obedience now meant being willing to be tied down, to be committed, to set up home in this land. It meant saying “yes” to legal ownership of land, of saying “yes” to all the challenges of property development in a third world country, to all the hassles that come with maintaining a base.

Perhaps this is a picture of life in the kingdom. Like Solomon mused, there is a time and season to everything. There is a season to be an Abraham and leave home and family, and a season to be a Joshua and possess. Both are faith sacrifices, both are difficult. [1]

May God give us discernment to know what is needed of us in each season, and the courage to say “yes”.

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[1] Consider Jeremiah’s exhortation to the Jewish exiles in Babylon to “build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit…seek the peace of the city” where they were taken captive [chap 29]. What? Give up hope of returning? Accept their fate as exiles? I don’t think that was what the captives wanted to hear. But that was God’s specific word to them, in their season of exile.