How God provided for me such that I did not end up homeless!

I wanted to write a quick post to detail some of the ways that God provided for me in the last week or two before I start forgetting what happened so this post doesn't neccessarily fit in anywhere (though I will fit it in somewhere to make the whole of my posts more coherent at some point in the future).

A little over a week ago I found myself in a situation where I simply did not have the money to pay rent. Indeed I had less than $10 to my name...perhaps less as I can't remember the exact amount. But it was insignificant when faced with $200 in rent due on March 1.

I had nowhere to go. Not even a storage unit to put my two suitcases in. No tent. No sleeping bag. Hardly any food left. And $5 of the money I had left was going to have to be saved for one last bus trip.

That bus trip would have involved going to pawn my computer so as to hopefully get enough to put my two suitcases in a storage unit, buy a tent and sleeping bag and start the life of a truly homeless person. Sleeping who knows where.

That is what I faced. I wish that I had written more as it actually happened because the details were far more "exciting" that I can recall them .

Anyway I had exhausted everything. Nothing. No money to pay rent. So I made plans to pawn my computer, figuring the Lord willed that it be so for my best, and started backing up my computer files, looking at ways to encrypt or otherwise removing private emails and such from the computer, and so forth. I started making lists of what to take with me and what to throw away or otherwise dispose of.

I had even made reservations at a storage unit.

In one last attempt to see if something could be done I proposed a deal to my landlord through an email such that I could pay him $50 a week instead of $200 up front for each month. I did not hear back from him so I continued with my preparations. He knew that I might not have the money and that if I did not that I would be moving out on the 1st.

And a new tenant had been looking and my landlord had said that she might be able to move into the trailer I was in if I couldn't come up with the money.

Previously a Christian whom I had done some computer work for had told me that he could give me a ride if I ever needed one so...remembering that..I had called him and had secured a ride to at least the storage unit where I could put my suitcases.

The day before the 1st...that last day I was going to be able to stay in the trailer and practically at the very last minute just before I was almost ready to call for my ride, pawn my computer, and move out on the 1st to become homeless....

My landlord stopped by to let me know that he did not want me to give blood in order to get him the $50 a week (the way I had planned to make the money) and that he was willing to let me stay in exchange for work that he needed done around the house at a rate of $10 per hour (i.e. painting, remodeling, etc...lots of work).

Unreal!

The Lord really tested my heart on that one.

A couple of days ago...I ran completely out of food. I have not been eating much lately anyway in an effort to save money but that day I had one last small bowl of some oatmeal that I had laying around and was completely out.

I called a business that I did some window cleaning for last month and they said they wanted it done again.

So I used the last $5 I had left and went to do their cleaning by bus. Other than the $5 I had one dollar left in my bank account (for an emergency LOL) and about .36 cents left in my wallet.

On the way there I did the figuring and realized that I would not make enough from the cleaning to eat well that day either. My charge had been $15 but that included a sales tax I was later told by the California government that I should not have collected (I did not realize that window cleaning was not sales taxable here). So I owed them $1.05. That meant that the present charge which I rounded to $14 was further reduced by the need to give them a refund...leaving me only $12.95. Taking another $5 away to reserve for my next bus trip left only $7.95. A Hometown buffet all you could eat soup, salad, taco deal cost $6. I just didn't have enough given that I had no work lined up for the weekend.

So it was back to oatmeal with one or two cheap burgers thrown in for the weekend again.

But...

I prayed and brought my need before the Lord and asked Him to give me more work somewhere, through another window cleaning job, if it was His will that I eat at Hometown Buffet.

When I got to the business in question...the owner asked me about cleaning the inside and not just the outside! I gave him my usual quote for the inside and he went back inside without commissioning me to do it. While continuing to clean the outside the thought came to me to offer him a deal so that I could eat. So I went in and told him that I would clean the outside and the two lower floor inside windows for $20. Which he went for!!

PRAISE GOD!

Something to note is that this business owner is really hurting business wise! I honestly do not understand why he is spending money on window cleaning as his windows are really not that dirty. Amazing.

I went on my way rejoicing, headed straight to the buffet on the trolley, and ate my fill.

I had been eating so little lately that I got full after just one plate. I forced myself (not to difficult mind you LOL) to eat a second plate and some soup along with desserts and got really full.

I sometimes wish that like a chipmunk I could eat and stuff excess food into my cheeks for later consumption.

Previously I had been able to eat there once a day, having one symbolic plate for breakfast, one to represent lunch, and finally one more in honor of a normal dinner for a total of 3 plates at the same real meal. Along with drinks and desserts of course LOL.

But my stomach has shrunk such that I absolutely can no longer eat all I used to eat at one sitting.

As a result of what the Lord had been teaching me lately..to just accept whatever circumstances He allows into my life as from the loving hand of my Father in heaven and given that He is my provision...not my bank account, my job, or otherwise...I pretty much took what happened in stride.

It was just another day in which my God provided for me. Still...I rejoiced over how the Lord had come through for me once again in a nearly if not outrightly miraculous ways.

I am now running out of money again (nothing new there). And I barely have enough to eat again such that I was half joking with my wife a couple of days ago (I am seperated from her but the Lord has done a marvelous work in both our hearts recently) that the card board on an empty cereal box I still had not thrown away was looking awefully tempting in that I could soak it in hot water and eat it to keep the hunger pangs down .

Sometimes I get so hungry that I start looking around to see if I might be able to soak some dandelions or some such. Not super seriously but mostly just wondering if I could do such a thing to eat.

It is interesting how even my lack of food these days is something in the hands of a loving Father to teach me through.

You see most of my life I have liked to eat. I think that is true of most of us. But I have spent countless thousands on eating at buffet restaurants (thank God I am not fat - I sometimes don't know how that is). One buffet meal has so often been cheaper than trying to buy individual items myself and taking the time to cook them.

I have had a certain, how shall I put it....I certain lack of affinity to the practice of fasting.

Now...under my present circumstances I can't help but fast at times at least with respect to skipping several meals or not eating a full one.

Oh...how I have sometimes longed for the pods falling from someone's table (an allusion to the prodigal son being hungry while watching pigs eat their pods of food). My customary spoiled North American belly has had a hard time of this lack of food.

But I have had food to eat every single day. I have had more than enough food to live. Perhaps not nutrionally sound as much as I would like. I have suffered some real strong hunger pangs at times. Even started trembling from the lack of food at other times.

But...I have not fasted as Jesus did for 40 days! Or even had to go without food for one single day!

My craving for food must be broken. My desire to eat above all else must be surrendered to God along with everything else. That He might do with my life what He wills to do with it.

And what better way to break my hearts attachment to food than to allow me to suffer a little whee bit of hunger here and there.

The God who loves me and who sent Jesus to die for me is working still. And I truly and honestly believe that every single circumstance in which I find myself is from the hand of my loving Father. For my good that I might come to more adequately share in his holiness.

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If this post has touched your heart in some way...whether pro or con please do send me a message or post a comment here so that I can continue to know that my writing remains at least interesting if not spiritually uplifting .

Carlos