Written by Dawn Rutan
Recently I was presented with an opportunity to buy a nice house in a good neighborhood not far from work. I started researching all the costs of buying and owning even before knowing the asking price. The more I thought about it, the less comfortable I was with going in debt for something I don’t really need to have. The tipping point came when I thought about the monthly obligation of a mortgage as compared to the flexibility of having money in the bank. I’m not saying home ownership is wrong for everybody, but here are some of the reasons I think it is wrong for me at this time:
“I want you to be free from anxieties… The unmarried or woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit” (1 Corinthians 7:32, 34 ESV). Although home ownership doesn’t have the same permanence that marriage does, it is still a long-term commitment to the welfare of something other than God. As a renter, I know that my residence will be taken care of when issues arise. It may not be done exactly the way I would choose to do it for myself, but I also don’t have to figure out how to pay for it myself (except for the fact that my landlord is also my employer, and I’m the one who writes the checks!). The anxieties of home ownership could easily sap the joy and peace out of daily living.
“Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called… For he who was called in the Lord as a slave is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise, he who was free when called is a slave of Christ. You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men” (1 Cor. 7:20, 22-23). Owing money can be a form of slavery. In New Testament times, at least some of those who were slaves were people who sold themselves into slavery in order to pay debts. If a mortgage payment forces me to change or limit how I would otherwise use my money, it has become my master.
“For they [the Macedonians] gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints—and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us… For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have” (2 Cor. 8:3-4, 12). I can’t give what I don’t have. Giving financial support to ministries has always been a high priority for me, and tying up money in property would hinder my ability to respond to needs I see. While considering mortgage payments, I started thinking of a special project that I could donate to instead, and that stirred my passion far more than the possibility of home ownership.
“You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? …Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring” (James 4:3-4,13-14). The American dream is all about investing today in order to provide for tomorrow, but there are no guarantees. Stock markets and housing markets crash; houses burn down; people lose jobs or die unexpectedly; and someday the Lord will return and put an end to all our buying and selling. What will really matter when that day comes?
In the midst of these internal debates, I’ve been reading two books that have helped to confirm my decision. One is John Piper’s book Don’t Waste Your Life. He relates the story of a man his father ministered to who neared the end of his life and realized “I’ve wasted it! I’ve wasted it!” Piper includes the old poem, “Only one life, ‘twill soon be past; Only what’s done for Christ will last” (p. 12). I can’t reconcile in my own mind how buying a house can be done for Christ in my current circumstances. (Hospitality is not one of my strengths, so I can’t justify it by means of serving people who need a place to stay.) I don’t want to come to the end of a mortgage and find I’ve wasted years of joy and peace for the uncertain future of a few years of retirement.
The other book that spoke to me was I Want God, by Lisa Whittle. She quotes a sermon by David Wilkerson, “A Call to Anguish,” and her response, “‘There’s nothing of the flesh that will give you joy. I don’t care how much money, I don’t care what kind of new house. There is absolutely nothing physical that can give you joy.’ I’m fresh out of good, churchy answers. What I do know is that the world has gotten to us. The church. All of us. And we look scary normal” (pp. 150-151). She goes on to quote Deuteronomy 8:11-14:
“Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments and His rules and His statutes, which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”
I’m convicted anew that many Christians today are indistinguishable from the world. We’ve adopted the same standard of living and priorities, and aren’t willing or able to make some of the hard choices. Again, I’m not saying that home ownership is wrong. Under certain circumstances it may be more fiscally responsible than renting, particularly for growing families or for those who wouldn’t require a mortgage. But we will each have to give an account for our stewardship of all that God has entrusted to us, and I don’t want to have to explain having chosen something that I’m not entirely comfortable with.
“As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace… in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 4:10-11).