Igneous Quill

“Prepare your work outside, get everything read for you in the field; and after that build your house.” Proverbs 24:27 NRSV

When I moved my family to New Jersey we had a household of furniture and belongings, a few hundred dollars in cash and a lot of debt. My wife managed to get work cleaning houses with someone else and I found a job teaching English as a second language. Teaching ELS amounted to a part-time job, but at least it was work and there was some money coming in. We stayed with new friends from church for a little over a month before finding a small apartment. This move to New Jersey was hard on all of us in my family.

It was 2005 and the housing boom was on. One of our other new friends from church was a real estate agent. She started talking to my wife about buying a home. My wife in turn tried to convince me. I refused. What sense did it make to sell a house to people in as dire straits as we found ourselves in at that time? None. Many, many people fell for it though.

Some who bought homes in those days had good jobs with steady income. They became unemployed with the recession. They did the best they could. Others should never have taken out a mortgage in the first place.

Proverbs counsels getting the field ready first, then the house. In ancient times the field would have been a major source of income, or else food. Translating that to today’s scenario we can say that a solid financial foundation needs to be laid for anything we may do. In the case of home buying it seems to be of paramount importance to secure the income source beforehand to pay the mortgage. Strive not only to obtain and retain a well-paying job, but seek also to have skills that likely will remain in demand even if your company closes or you are laid off.

Wisdom is found more often in foresight and preparation than in on-the-fly problem solving.