Blind Faith of the Heart

Blind Faith of the Heart

This short inspirational story is a wonderful example of blind faith of the heart. Author Marcia Wieder gives an insightful explanation of why it can make sense to act from blind faith.

A Leap of Faith

Marcia Wieder, CEO/Founder, Dream University ®

A few years ago, I bought what I thought was my dream home. The view of the water was beautiful and although the half renovated house needed work, I moved in. After a few months, it was time to install a new bathroom and with the opening of a wall, the nightmare began.

A wide and deep crack in a load bearing wall sent us searching for the cause. It turned out that the previous owners failed to disclose they had built a false floor to conceal that the house had slipped eight inches on the foundation. That wasn't the worst news. The slippage made the walls lean and because they were cinder block, they could not be repaired. I soon received devastating news that the entire house had to come down.

Droves of lawyers were hired as a suit unfolded involving five parties. As the tally for legal fees grew to thousands upon thousands of dollars, the sellers ran out of money and I wasn't far behind them. The question is, how long do you hang in there when the rules of the "blame game" are (guilty or innocent) the last person standing wins?

I can be tenacious but sometimes strength becomes weakness.

A total of four years later, finally in a pre-trial hearing with the judge, it became obvious that there was no recourse. We pulled the plug on the case, opting to get on with our lives.

When we were originally told our old home had to be torn down, we dreamed of building a waterfront villa on the lot. Although friends warned us that this could be a source of tremendous anxiety, our weekly inquiry became "Build or Buy?" As the house deteriorated and mold and mildew moved in, it was clearly past the time for us to move out. Tired of the ordeal, we decided to sell the property and buy a new house.

We committed to disclosing everything and to sell it as a tear down. Realtors told us, "With all the problems, be prepared to take a substantial loss, if you can sell it at all." A builder offered us $150,000 less than I paid for it. Although we were eager to sell, I trusted my heart and we said, "No thank you."

The following Sunday morning I committed to finding us a new home and sure enough, found a stunning Mediterranean villa that looked like the one we would have built. There it stood, right before my eyes. We wanted it but it was out of our price range. Patrick, my fiancé, voiced his concern that we also couldn't buy until we sold the old house and he was validated by many. I battled my own fears, thinking it was too expensive and this was not the right time. "Sell the old before you buy the new," my doubter chanted obsessively.

Here's what I teach. Sometimes there is no evidence your dream is a good idea or that this is the right time to pursue it. But where are you looking for evidence? Don't look in your checkbook or on the news or in the stock market to decide if you believe in your dream. Look in your own heart. Can you believe in something because it matters to you and then prove you do by taking action?

I could easily imagine us living here. I saw new friends and community, great abundance and joy, and great success in our careers. I knew making this leap would forever change our lives, but advised against it, I was afraid and confused.

This was the moment of truth for me. Would I be a hypocrite or an example? Everything I stood for came bubbling to a point of no return. We held our breath, leapt and bought our dream home. Wondering about the old house? Now we had two mortgages, but at least we were living in paradise, happy but scared.

We spent our first evening as a couple of romantics, camped out on an air mattress in front of the fireplace with a bottle of champagne. The second day our new bed arrived so we sleep in our bedroom. As the morning light came flooding into the room, I let out a scream, waking Patrick abruptly from a sound sleep.

"I know who is going to buy our old place," I shrieked. He looked at me like I was a mad woman. "Who?" He asked with a raised eyebrow."Isn't this house like the one we were going to build?" "Yeah?" He said with a little trepidation."The builder of this house will want to build another one like it on our lot. He's going to buy it. I just know it."

And within thirty days he did. He bought it without a realtor and I am thrilled to say we made a profit. He was a man with a vision, saw potential and knew it was a good deal. We used the money to pay down our new mortgage and now pay close to what we were paying to live in the dump. But now we live in a palace....a Dream Palace!

When asked how I knew this story would have a happy ending, I didn't. I just believed we had suffered enough and were due a break.

The life changing lesson I learned was this. The builder would have never been a prospect if we had not acted on our dream. Avoid the myth of prerequisites. Sometimes you have to prove to life and yourself that you are serious. With a single step you are in action on a dream and new resources and opportunities show up that were not available when you were just thinking about your dream. As you say yes to your dream, life says yes back to you in ways you can't even imagine.

Marcia Wieder is the founder of Dream University ® and the creator of the Dream Coach ® method. Go to DreamUniversity.com for an inspiring gift.