Earlier this month my wife and I closed the loan on our new home. We bought a house! We are now moved in and are slowly unpacking our things and settling in. From the time we got married in 2010 to now, we have moved a grand total of nine times. NINE!
The bulk of these moves have happened since we came to Cincinnati to attend school and pursue vocational ministry. We had always rented, bouncing around every year (sometimes less time, sometimes more). Once we began entertaining the idea of buying a home, our minds began to automatically shift and it is here where we discovered this valuable lesson about life and faith.
A Valuable Lesson About Life and Faith From Buying a Home
One day. That’s all the time it took us to decide on what house to buy once we had narrowed them down from online listings. We looked at a handful of houses and the question that came ringing loud in my mind was, what house do I want to spend a long time in?
Did you catch it?
The valuable lesson I learned from buying a home is that to think long is to think best. I don’t particularly mean long as in for a long time but long as in far into the future.[shareable]To think long is to think best.[/shareable]
Life is a funny thing. We may give time to thinking long at the beginning of the year, but even then it’s only usually looking a year out. The rest of the time, we are focused on our present, our immediate past, and our immediate future.
Bill Gates is credited with saying this all-too true statement: “Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.”
A 30-year mortgage kind of forces you to think long about your life. But we shouldn’t need a mortgage to compel us to think long. In fact, I think we all need to think long more often. What could we possibly accomplish if we were to take a longer look into the future? A lot more than if we don’t.
5 Advantages of Thinking Long
In a day and time where things are moving and changing at a ridiculously fast pace, we must guard ourselves at thinking only about the immediate because when we only think about the immediate we rob ourselves of thinking about the important things in life. It could be that the immediate is what’s most important in this moment for you, but it’s likely not.[shareable]When we only think about the immediate we rob ourselves of thinking about the important.[/shareable]
Here are 5 advantages of thinking long that I encourage you to consider:
- Thinking long… puts the important things into proper perspective. In the grand scheme, does it really matter?
- Thinking long… helps you stay focused on living out your life’s mission as a follower of Jesus. Once you discover what you are meant to do, you inevitably must cut distractions out of your life.
- Thinking long… enables you to value the small, but important things in life. Laughing with your spouse, playing with your kids, they can seem small, but they are extremely important.
- Thinking long… allows you to become more open to God’s timing. David wanted to build God a house, yet God told him that it wasn’t his job. Instead God gave him a promise that wouldn’t be fulfilled for another 900+ years. That’s a long time!
- Thinking long… helps you to value the journey. Everything doesn’t have to happen right away, and that’s okay. Enjoy the journey you are on right now.
5 Guiding Questions to Get You Thinking Long
It’s one thing to consider thinking long, but it’s a whole other thing to actually do it. And I must say, you don’t have to buy a house to start doing this! In fact, I highly recommend you start thinking long well before you buy a house. It’s a big purchase, after all.
To get you started in your journey of thinking long, consider these guiding questions:
- What do I want people to say at my funeral?
- What is God calling me to do in my lifetime?
- What do I want my life to look like 10 years from now?
- What must I do today to take a step toward the answer of questions 1-3?
- What must I stop doing today to make room for the answer to question 4?
A Book Combo to Help
If you’re not sure how to answer the first three questions, allow me to recommend to you two books that will help you move forward in finding your answer.
To help you answer questions 1 and 2, give Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
To help you answer question 3, give Michael Hyatt’s and Daniel Harkavay’s Living Forward: A Proven Plan to Stop Drifting and Get the Life You Want
What’s Your Experience Been?
Have you ever considered thinking long? Did you experience the same thing when buying a home? Let me know in the comments below or on Twitter or Facebook.
Want More?
If this article resonated with you, subscribe to the blog. As a way of saying thank you, I have a gift to send you. It’s called Journey to Knowing God. It’s a 28-day daily devotional that features 4 audio sessions and 24 daily prompts. It will help you experience God in a real way every single day. Let’s connect!
