It’s something we all dream about at some point, isn’t it? Where we will live when we finally arrive at the life we are working toward. You know, the white picket fence — the American Dream.
For some it’s small and quaint. For others is expansive and out-of-the-way. For my daughter, at least at this point, the only requirement would be that it is pink!
For us, this is the ultimate dream house. We love the color variations in the rock, the tin roof and how the paint connects it all together. And then there are the dormer windows and the columns on the porch that break up the lines and draw your eye in. There’s just not much wrong with this house, other than…it’s not a house! It’s a bank in Cameron, TX.
Kristen and I drive by this beautiful structure every time we head south to visit her parents in Round Top. We love looking at it and dreaming of what could be in the future. It’s a constant reminder of the life we’d like to have.
It’s amazing how tied we are to houses in our culture. We go into unbelievable debt for them. We work two jobs and make double payments so we can afford them. And we USED to agree to ridiculous mortgage schemes in order to get into a house that we really had no business buying in the first place. We do all of this working toward that perfect dream, just knowing that when we get there all will be right in the world.
Question: What if we put that much effort in building a different house? A house of peace? A house that constantly carried the presence of Jesus. A house that became a blessing to everyone who entered it. What if instead of working two jobs for brick and mortar we actually quit a job to build a house that lasts? What would our homes be like if we were OK to live in half the square footage in order to have more time investing in our children? What if the “American Dream” is actually the greatest threat to the greatest desires of our hearts?
Kristen and I still love that house and we may or may not ever build it. But one thing I know, if we do build it, it will be done in freedom, not bondage. It will be a blessing and not a curse. Because that’s not the house that I really dream about when I close my eyes at night.
landoncollard 
Hey man! Welcome to the 21st century! Glad to see you blogging. Great thoughts! Keep on writting!
Thank you Darryl. It’s a whole new world!!!
Love you and look forward to sharing our journeys together through this.
Hope to see you soon!
Amen amen amen! Being forced to move here (TX) from an over-inflated crashing market (AZ) in order to stay gainfully employed; we believe it was God’s way of redirecting our hearts & minds to the bigger picture of importance. While I wanted to believe & always thought when the day came that we’d move out of AZ, we’d have a huge down payment to put on our dream house because of the over-inflation, reality would set in that we were just blessed to be able to get something for it & then he would provide what we needed vs what we wanted within 6mths of moving & change our hearts to be content. I praise him daily for “the roof” he has provided over our family & continue to carry my cross daily in an effort to invest time in our children & in our marriage; & the world around us as best I can.
Gaye Lynn,
I know what you mean about making plans and dreaming dreams and God changing things on you. Kristen and laugh about that all the time. We have gotten to the place that we actually expect our dreams to be changed because it has happened so many times. The good thing about this is that it’s a lot easier to keep the big picture in view. Who we really are and what we’re really about. What’s amazing is experiencing the blessings of God’s dreams coming true in our lives! It’s better than anything we could ever come up with anyway.
I admit I was the dreamer at one time. I constantly thought of how I could have a bigger and better house. I constantly remodeled and redesigned our house. Then suddenly something changed…. After returning from 3 weeks working with orphans in Ukraine who only owned two pair of shoes (winter and summer), two sets of clothes and very few possesions, I came home to my “house”. Everything was different. I got sick to my stomach when I looked at a room we rarely used and thought of the children who may never have a room of their own. I looked at the possesions lying around the house and my eyes were opened!
It has been over two years since I walked through that door. Now I try my best to pray for peace with what I have. I praise God for the blessings he has given me. But most of all I pray God will show me how to use these gifts to help those in need.
Thank you for the great thoughts today, Landon!!
Virginia
Virginia! Great to hear from you!
I think one thing you said is key…praying that “God will show me how to use these gifts to help those in need.” I was talking with our Missional Pastor about this earlier today. As we interact with and extend the kingdom into different cultures, we will quickly notice the difference in material stuff. Our job is not to make these cultures look the same – them more affluent or us less. Our job is to represent the heart of God in both. Us realizing that there is more to this life than stuff is a big deal in our culture and I think draws us much closer to representing the heart of God.
Love your thoughts! Look forward to chatting with you more.
Landon
Amen, great thoughts, when we view things in this world as temporary…the big house where everything is perfect does not seem as important.
Sue
Isn’t that the truth! It’s amazing how quickly that new truck becomes the old truck or that new computer is out of date. Oh, the crazy things we can find ourselves chasing.
I couldn’t agree more. My husband and I bought our first house just over a year ago. It’s not a fixer-upper, but it’s an older house and it requires plenty of work, especially in those first few months. And all the extra work we put into our house took a toll on us emotionally and spiritually and it definitely took a toll on our marriage.
We started to realize putting that much time and effort into something that won’t last eternally wasn’t worth it. Now, we pick and choose our projects carefully and we’ve let go of some of our “American Dreams” so that we can actually live out some of our God-given dreams like building an awesome marriage.
Now we have more time and energy to invest in things that really matter.
Thanks for the great post!
Samantha,
I love hearing what you and your husband are running after. Kristen and I are definitely headed the same direction. Still running after dreams passionately but doing our best to allow God to reshape them. It’s really a great way to live!
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bookmarking and adding your RSS feed to my Google account.
I look forward to new updates and will talk about this blog with my Facebook group.
Chat soon!
Thanks for the encouraging feedback! Take a look at some of the recent posts. My book, Reckless Pursuit, will be coming out soon. If you’ve enjoyed the blog, you might want to take a look at it.