On the cusp of our second Minnesota winter in the Tiny House, I’ve been invited to expose the dreadful details of tiny living for Tiny House Magazine’s October Issue. But, with such a compelling movement filled with homey abodes and optimistic minimalists, I struggled… what could be scary about our newly found freedoms?
Looking for inspiration, I turned to social media and asked: “If you were about to move into a Tiny House, what would be your biggest fear?” I was quickly flooded with responses spouting the same fears everyone talks about: claustrophobia, stench, family feuds, etc… All fears that would quickly be dispelled if the opportunity arose to step inside one. A nasty dark cloud of negativity crept in on me and I quickly deleted the post.
When we started praying and planning for our Tiny House we truly were fearless. We never doubted, never talked about the “what ifs.” We just plowed ahead with the obvious and oblivious expectation that fewer things and much smaller bills would provide for a simpler and more amazing life! Other people, however, generously offered us their fears. What about winter? What about equity? What about all your stuff? What about the kids? Defending our family decisions became exhausting and one day fear started to sink its teeth into me.
See, I think when you pray for guidance, hand over control to God, and fully rely on Him you won’t have all the answers. And that’s okay! Basically, I wanted to tell the naysayers, “I don’t know but we’ve been praying ferociously and we trust that God will have it all figured out when we get there.” But that’s not a good enough answer. It’s unrealistic, unorganized, unprepared. But, whatever! Trusting God was good enough for us!
This isn’t a passive trust. I’m talking about the eyes-squeezed-shut, leap of faith kind of trust.
The day that fear crept in on me was dark. I honestly didn’t know where we were going to live and finally, for just one day, that shook me. I’d been asked so many times and had always been content to gush, “I don’t know!” with a smile. On that day not knowing was scary.
Fear is evil. Fear’s goal is to derail with any obstacle that causes doubt, hesitancy, and worry. I could not let it settle in. These obstacles drive me forward. There must be amazing blessings on the other side.
I prayed a lot. I forced my focus on all the ways God has taken care of every problem that we’ve entrusted to Him. I continued to shake off the dark cloud.
God, we trust You. Show us Your plan for our lives, blow down the obstacles, rebuke the fear, guard our hearts, blast open the doors that you’d have us walk through, and make us courageous!
Once the fear was replaced with peace, I realized that God had used the vulnerable state that I was in to show me that He put us in this Tiny House, not for security, conventional, responsible, safe, realistic purposes but for HIS purposes. God put us in a house with wheels. This isn’t about being realistic. It’s about being ready, available, and flexible to follow His plan. It’s about being fearless.
This article, written by Kim Kasl, was published in the October 2015 issue of Tiny House Magazine.
9 Comments
What a good post to help me turn my fears to God today. We have a huge house in Monticello that is so overwhelming to me. The repairs are over my head. But God is faithful and each day is a faith walk with a beautiful purpose.
So true, Laura!♡
Dear Kim, your witness is such a great inspiration for me and my family. I have 2 kids of that age and would like so much to hear about those things you are going to say on that conference… but I am in Europe 🙂 Croatia. Is there any information on whether anyone of your friends is coming to Europe any day soon? It would be great.
Thank you so much Brankica! ♡ I wish I was coming to speak in Europe! Maybe someday somehow I’ll be in Croatia. ! Then we’ll meet and it would be lovely!!!
We are a family of soon to be 4 almost finished building our tiny house and I happened to stumble across this blog. It resonated with me so much and brought tears to my eyes. Trust is a peace giving thing. Thank you
Oh my GOODNESS Marielle! What an exciting time for you!!! I’m so inspired by YOU! Thank you for your lovely words.♡ So much love and blessings to you!
We have 2 kiddos (3.5yo and a 1yo) and we’re looking to downsize from our 1559 s/f house. (our house actually goes on the market next weekend!) We need to stay stationary due to my husband’s employment so, sticks and bricks it is but he was able to wrangle a transfer to an area a few hours away where we actually love to vacation!
We found a little 391 s/f riverfront cabin (it has a loft so there’s actually more living space than it sounds) on 1/3acre. It’s 85yrs old so, we’d need to do a lot of work to make it home but we’re handy and, with no mortgage, it seems like, if we do our due diligence, it may be the answer to our prayers. (we haven’t bought it yet, we actually need to go check it out in person first!)
As excited as I am, I was starting to feel scared. I was feeling fretful and, as much as I wanted to talk about the possibilities of our dream coming to fruition, I feared having my parade rained on. Our family and friends know we’ve been looking to go smaller but the general assumption has always been 800-1000 s/f, not 400! I don’t want to have to have the conversations about how will we live with only one bathroom, where is everyone going to sleep, yada, yada, yada…
And then last night, I came across your blog. My husband and I have actually watched your episode several times and it’s what made us realize we could do small with kids. I kept reading and reading and went and looked at your instagram photos and kept thinking, “look at them, they are THRIVING and in almost HALF the space you’re fretting about!” Thank you for being bold! Thank you for sharing! Thank you for being a witness to the strength of God and what we can do when we follow His plans for us and tune out the expectations of the world!
1 John 4:11-18
I’m so glad I read this today! I was just saying to my husband a few days ago that the thing I worry about most, with our plan to move into a Tiny House, is how I’m going to continue answering everyone’s questions. (we were at a wedding last weekend with a bunch of old friends, so it was particularly rough!) We marked out the plan for our tiny house in our lounge room today and I just felt so excited and glad and peaceful. It was good to be reminded that the questions will keep coming. But it’s not my job to settle them, just to trust.
Awww! I’m so, so glad that it helped! I’m sorry you had a rough time with the questions…but I promise it will get better! Yes, is okay not to have all the answers! ♡ Prayers for an amazing journey, Jodi! ♡♡♡