Sonia & Gabriele

At the end of November last year, as I was listening to the Gospel being read during Mass, a particular phrase touched my heart: “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field that a man found and hid. In his excitement he went and sold everything he had and bought that field.” Matt. 13:44 At that time my wife Sonia and I had made a decision to vacate the Council property we’d been living in for the past 11 years. It only had two bedrooms, and was on the fourth floor with no lift and was too small for our growing family (Christian 11, Dominic 2 and Veronica 10 months). With two cots in our bedroom we had no space to move and we were desperately trying to find something more suitable.

One of the first things I did was to enrol St Joseph as my helper. As a father I thought he knew how difficult it can be to find a good home for your family, where everyone can be safe and happy. So I wrote Him a letter with my requests and then I started to pray a novena for his intercession in this matter. We also prayed for God’s guidance and for His presence to be with us during this time. Because the council had no suitable property the only solution was to look for something in the private rented sector, which they were prepared to subsidize, but nothing seemed to be available for a price we could afford.

When I heard these words from Matthew’s Gospel, however, I felt that God was telling me that I had to “sell” what I had in order to gain “the kingdom of Heaven”. I am very fond of my books, tapes, music cds and videos that I have been buying to grow spiritually since I was baptised in the Holy Spirit 10 years ago. But, upon hearing these words I felt God asking me to get rid of many of the things I was attached to if I wanted to have the “treasure” the Bible promised.

I started thinking about what “the kingdom of heaven” meant and “what is this treasure God wants me to have?” We all give a value to the things we have and own, and as I have 3 kids, I want to make sure that they have enough clothes, food, toys and books etc. Then when I think of the times we are living in, I value the amount of money and savings we have “just in case”. But I felt like the Lord was saying, “What about heavenly treasure? What value are you giving this?”

I believe the treasure God is offering me and my family is eternal freedom, eternal hope and eternal joy. I always remember the word I was given when baptised in the Holy Spirit, from the book of Baruch 4: 22 “For my hope is in the Eternal that he will save you: and joy is come upon me from the Holy One, because of the mercy which shall come to you from our everlasting Saviour.” I was also given a “Spirit that makes me cry Abba Father”. I felt my Father in Heaven at this time was calling me to trust Him even more that I did before. The treasure that He was offering me was the freedom that comes from entrusting Him with my life, my wife Sonia and my family and the work He has given me to do. Because God is the author of my life and because I dare call Him Father, He wants to look after me, Sonia and the kids spiritually, emotionally and financially.

With surrender comes joy

I have experienced freedom from worries on many occasions in the past because I have put my trust in the Lord, and I have found that with surrender joy has come. This I felt was another step towards spiritual growth. God was giving me the grace to see with spiritual eyes our possessions. At the same time He was helping me to be more detached, to let go of those things that were “my treasure”: things that were good and would make me happy for a while, but which would never give me and the family eternal joy. I felt God was challenging me. If He had spoken to me, what was I to do about it? There is no point in asking God for help and direction if, when it comes, I dismiss it or do not really take it on board. I know that if Christian and Dominic ask for my help, it is because they cannot do it on their own, and as their father I help them. If they do not listen to my advice, I wonder why they asked! So I decided to give away most of the “spiritual material” I had collected to the prayer group I go to, which was rather painful. God really knows how to use our personal circumstances to speak to us directly and to draw us closer to Him and move by faith alone. Because of the mould in our council flat, Sonia had had to throw away lots of clothes and shoes affected by this. Thus God used that situation to speak to her about getting rid of some of her “treasure”. And, as the days passed by, I kept looking at our bookshelves and cupboards for anything else that could be given away. This caused a bit of tension between Sonia and me as, at this stage, she didn’t feel the same as I did. She loves books and was concerned to keep plenty for the children for the future.

Finally, after searching the private renting market for 6 months, we found a 3 bed garden flat that fitted the description of our ideal house. It was on the ground floor, centrally located, close to transport and to the parish church. We prayed about it and asked God for help. This came in the most amazing way when a couple, we have known for a while, offered their help in being our guarantors. We then made an offer which was accepted. Moving out of our council flat, however, although we were always grumbling about it, was a big step - almost surreal. After 11 years living in a secured tenancy we were now going to live in an unsecured tenancy!

I am usually very cautious when it comes to change as I need God’s reassurance (that He is with me and He is in charge of the situation) for me to make a move. We always complained that our Council didn’t really want to help us with being re-housed in spite of the problems we had with rats in the kitchen, etc but until then we only complained and prayed. We had not been able to take a step forward. Psalm 137 says that “God hears the cry of His people”……and we now realised that He had heard our cry! It slowly dawned on us that God was leading us into the unknown, into a place where we were not comfortable and which we were definitely not used to. We realised our security before had been in the Council, the secure tenancy and the things we stored in our cupboards! Although it was unsettling, knowing that God was behind this move, it was also very reassuring to us both.

All through the process we kept praying. We asked God to close the doors if this house wasn’t what He wanted for us. But the door kept opening and we received peace in our hearts to go ahead. I remember a week prior to the move during our prayer time I asked Sonia to ask God for a word of comfort, reassurance etc. As she opened the Bible, the words that jumped out for her were from Matthew 6:19-21 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” I could not believe it. Here God was again reminding us of “His treasure”!

Call to simplify our lifestyle

We finally moved house at the beginning of May and as I looked at the things we had stored in our 2 bedroomed flat, you would think we had been living in a 4 bedroomed house. Many of these things we had kept for “just in case” circumstances had been gathering dust in our storage room for years.

I sense God is very much wanting us to simplify our lifestyle and belongings and instead of having “just in case” items, to really trust God for the future. He has shown us by the way He has taken care of us and provided us with such a lovely flat, that He will be trustworthy for the future. I believe that when God speaks to us, His children, He first of all gives us the blessing of “grace” to be open to what He is saying; then He give us the blessing of “peace” to support us throughout the internal trials that we may face because of what He asked of us, and finally He give us the blessing of “joy” so that we can be thankful for what He has brought about in our circumstances, through us. In fact when Sonia and I pray together, most of the words we get are reminding us to give thanks to God “for He is good and His love endures for ever.”

Gabriele Sedda works for Goodnews and is married to Sonia, from Slovakia.