Our last week in this house. We’re moving.

I’m ready. To go. Make the change from this house to our next. Hubs and I are investing time in painting the new place. Paying for new carpet and blinds. We’re giving our time and money to something we believe in.

There’s a value in that, you know. King David said, “I won’t offer a sacrifice to the Lord that cost me nothing.”

Every investment we make in our homes, our friends and family, in each other, our churches and community increases who we are, enlarges our hearts.

So, though painting is back breaking, I love the opportunity to roll paint on my own walls.

The house we’re leaving has our investment too. We’ve fixed things up. Added those bling touches. We have a lot of memories in this house.

I’ll never forget the first day I came home from work after the painting had been done, the carpet installed and the new furniture arrived. It was unbelievable. The house was gorgeous. I never wanted to leave. For thirteen years, there has not been a day I didn’t love coming home to this house. Well, I work here now, but you know what I mean.

It was becoming a bit of a blurry line between where I work and where I live. When they are the same, one begins to overshadow the other. I have to work hard to maintain the balance. It will be so nice to have an office space where I’ll actually leave the house, cross the garage, and go through another door into my turret tower and upstairs to my office. Living and working will be separated a bit.

In this house, we had a ton of youth meetings. When we started Fire Dweller, a multi-church prayer meeting, nine years ago, it was in this living room. Great men and woman in God have visited us and stayed here.

My dad used to drive down to south Florida when he was working for the state architectural department and spend the night here.

We’ve laughed here. Cried here. I wrote my first Thomas Nelson book here.

It’s home.

But God is moving our boundaries. And we are willing. “We say Yes to You, Jesus.”

See, our friends who sold us the house lived a debt free life. Not only with money, but with things. They were able to say “Yes” to the Lord and offer us an amazing deal on the home. Even sweeten the deal with a beautiful petite grand piano. Who does that? People who are “debt free.”

It’s a challenge to me as I pack and move to let go of things I don’t want or need anymore.

It’s a challenge to me as we move into a house that is an extravagant gift to us, to live simply, holding loosely to things.

Paul wrote, “Owe nothing to no one except the debt of love.” Hard words to live by, but worth words to make our life motto. A goal worth striving for.

Except for the house, we are debt free. We were even able to forgive a debt owed to us. Extravagance breeds extravagance.

So, I’m off to paint. Looking forward to what God has for us. Hoping I will write more books in my new office. We’ll see.

Live for and believe in our extravagant God!