Skulls of Stone

In the height of the good times, a young couple bought a house for $265,000. The good times rolled on and the house rose in value to over one-half a million dollars. Then…the bottom fell out.

The real estate market bottomed out; the house value crashed down to $200,000 and they were or are “underwater” on the house. Underwater means you owe more on your house than it is worth. As the economy struggles, and continues to struggle, their business was generating less and less money.

People encouraged them not to make their $2100 a month house payment; the logic being if you stop making the payments, pocket that money yourself, in two years you would have $48,000 in your pocket to put down as a down payment on a new house. You see, the banks and government are so far behind in processing paperwork that if one is foreclosed upon, it will take almost two years to get evicted from your “underwater” house. It’s like a “in tough times, you can have your cake and eat it too” syndrome.

But, this couple could not do this. They felt they made a deal and no matter how hard it was to continue to pay the mortgage, they did. God some way made sure they had enough money each month to make the payment. In good conscience, they made all the payments; much to the chagrin and ridicule of co-workers, family, and friends…

Then one day a letter arrived from the bank; the envelope was marked “Important”. Reluctantly, the wife opened the letter which said “Interest Rate Adjustment”. Her heart sank; upon closer examination, the interest rate dropped from the high 6% range to the high 2% range. Yes, the interest rate dropped and as a result, the monthly house payment dropped by one half.

How did this happen? Because they have a business (self-employed), they did not qualify for a traditional loan. They had a loan with the capability to have the rate adjusted (usually up). Their variable interest rate was tied to an index of T-bill rates which are some of the lowest in history that is why their interest rate and payment dropped.

I asked the wife, “What did you do when you read the letter?” She said, “I cried—God is so good.” She told me she should have known better than to be so surprised; God has and continues to move in their lives. God blesses obedience; He has in this case. We live by grace, God’s undeserved merit. We all know that but why are we such slow learners? I guess we have skulls of stone.

Thank you, Lord, again.