Skip to footer

Where is home in the housing market?

A Christian Science perspective: Spiritual intuition can be your compass.

  • By Roger Gordon

As the housing market slowly recovers in the United States, people may start looking to move. Baby boomers may accelerate a current trend of downsizing to smaller homes, while younger families may begin to upsize.

Increased activity in the housing market causes many people to look to the "experts" for advice. Many of these experts share totally valid yet varied opinions. Some anticipate continued recovery; others worry about even further decline. In the case of baby boomers, some advocate downsizing; others argue that the financial benefits may in fact be insignificant. And with young families, some encourage upsizing while prices are low; others warn of risks and setbacks.

Just type "downsizing" or "upsizing" into Google, and you'll find all sorts of perspectives. It can be easy to get lost in a maze of advice. How can anyone know which choice is best?

I'm not advocating downsizing or upsizing, renting or buying, moving or staying put. What's needed is to take more time to spiritualize our concept of home.

While consulting the experts can be helpful, the best help we can get is from the best expert – and that's God. God, divine Mind, is infinite intelligence. God knows the best course of action for each one of us, and He wisely directs our path when we turn to Him wholeheartedly for guidance.

God has always been infinitely reliable. Take the case of Joseph in the Bible. When Pharaoh couldn't discern the meaning of a mysterious and troubling dream, Joseph told him, "God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace" (Genesis 41:16). Then, with God's help, Joseph interpreted the dream correctly, which resulted in gathering and storing grain during seven years of plenty so that Egypt would have sustenance during the following seven years of famine.

"To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is big with blessings," wrote Mary Baker Eddy ("Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," p. vii). No one needs to lean on the shifting sands of confusing opinions. Each one of us can turn away from fear, worry, and uncertainty, and lean totally on the sustaining infinite, God.

This may mean we need to uplift our idea of home. We may need to understand that home is not a physical place that costs money we may or may not have; rather, home is an idea in consciousness. Our home is where we naturally express spiritual qualities such as love, comfort, peace, generosity, stability, productivity, and joy. Home is where we come together with those dear to us. Home is where we are free to be ourselves.

When we spiritualize our concept of home, we see that our home truly is within us. The spiritual qualities we associate with home, and that we cherish in our hearts and prayers, will naturally be expressed outwardly in whatever way is appropriate for us. In our specific circumstances, this may mean downsizing, upsizing, renting, buying, or just staying right where we are. But we'll know clearly the answer that is right as we let our spiritual intuition be our compass and trust God's unending, infinite love to point the way.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Where is home in the housing market?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/A-Christian-Science-Perspective/2013/0612/Where-is-home-in-the-housing-market
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe