Page 84 - Evidence of Things Unseen

this resulted in various members sending me job applications from businesses they knew
to be hiring. It was impossible to tell these people that I wasn’t looking for a job, so I just
took the applications and said thank you. The thought that I would have nowhere to go at
the end of the month would nag at me, and I thought of all these people judging me to be
a fool for not seeking a job when I had the opportunity.
All these things contributed to my lack of enjoyment during this time. I was a bit upset
that my wife was able to have such a good time while I could not. No one judged her as a
transgressor. Everyone expected me to do my duty as a husband and father, and to be the
breadwinner. I was seen as the transgressor, while my wife was viewed as a victim of my
disobedience. This had been the judgment of the ministers who had rejected me, and this
judgment seemed to follow me around like some hellish burden.
I felt very constrained by the Spirit still, and I would have violated my conscience had
I gone out and taken a job. I still felt that I would be forfeiting a great blessing of God had
I abandoned this walk of faith, so I continued to wrestle with God and I decided that, for
better or worse, I would look to Him to provide, and if I perished, then I perished.
About a week before our time was up with our friends I felt a growing conviction that
we were to sell our remaining furniture and possessions and purchase a motorhome to
travel in. We had stored all of our things in our friends’ barn, and since they were out in the
country, it was not a very good place to have a sale. I decided to rent a truck and take
everything back to our house in Fort Valley, which was technically still ours until the
foreclosure was finalized, and I would have a yard sale there.
My family and I packed a large moving truck full of our possessions, and I drove it to
town. We had some friends who lived a block up from our old house, and they said we could
stay with them while we had the sale. Early in the morning I went down to our house to set
things out of the truck, to be displayed for sale. I could not have imagined the result we
were to have. People began showing up much earlier than I had anticipated, and they were
buying everything. I did not even have time to price the items.
Things became so hectic that I had people climbing up into the back of the moving
truck to see what else I had for sale. Some men even volunteered to help me unload the
truck so they could see what else was in there. I was literally spinning in circles trying to
keep up with it all. People were asking for prices right and left, and I was handling
everything as best as I could. By that afternoon everything that I had brought to sell had
sold, with the exception of a washer and dryer, and I had a man leave me a business card
asking me to call him if I did not sell them. So I called him and he bought these last two
items, though he gave me less than I had wanted.
It was evident that God wanted me to sell all of our possessions in this manner, for I
had never seen a yard sale like this one before. It was like some angel had whipped the
crowd into a frenzy of buying. I had thought of continuing the sale the next day, but there
was no need, for everything had sold. God was going to start our family over fresh. He had
us get rid of all things that tied us to a past of disobedience, and we were going to begin
anew in obedience.
Our month was over with our friends in the country, and with the money I had made
with this sale I was able to rent a hotel room in Perry, Georgia. I finally knew some rest in
my soul there, for I was not living with the judgment and criticism of others. It was a great
relief for me to retire to our hotel room in peace.
I did not have nearly enough money to purchase a motorhome, but my wife’s parents
had given all their children and their spouses a financial gift at Christmas every year since