there is a way that seems right to a man...

dont think i have some kind of french fetish all of a sudden, but the other day when i posted about the "paris syndrome" article, it reminded me of something i ran across back in 1995. some (or many) of you might remember this, but surprisingly enough, almost no one i've told or asked has ever heard this story before.

the year is 1965. a french lawyer by the name of andre-francois raffray arranged to buy, under the french system en viager ("for life"), the paris apartment of 90 year old jeanne calment. at $500 a month, not a bad deal for mr. raffray, considering he was only in his mid-40's at the time. even if he only had to make a few months or years worth of payments before mrs. calment's demise, under french law the apartment would be his, and at quite a bargain.

what our hapless lawyer friend didnt know was:
1. that mrs. calment would eventually become the oldest living person in the world, according to the guinness book of world records... and
2. that mrs. calment would outlive mr. raffray by almost 2 years.

andre-francois raffray died on Christmas day, 1995 at age 77. jeanne calment died in august, 1997 at age 122. to add insult to injury, mr. raffray's widow was obligated to continue making payments, and had mrs. calment outlived her, the raffray children and grandchildren would have been on the hook for the $500 per month. when all was said and done, mr. raffray and his wife paid $184,000 for an apartment that was valued at around $60,000, and which mr. raffray never even got to spend a single night in. nothing illegal or even immoral took place here. the elderly property owner receives a steady and predictable monthly income, and, in theory, the buyer gets a heck of a deal on some prime real estate... in theory.

up front it seemed like a pretty smart business deal on the part of mr. raffray, but the apostle paul, writing to the church in corinth, had something to say about the world's idea of what's smart and what isnt...

"do not deceive yourselves. if any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards
of this age, he should become a "fool" so that he may become wise. for the
wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. as it is written: "He
catches the wise in their craftiness." (1 cor 3:18-20)

we're never told if mr. raffray was a Christian or not, but there's plenty here for the Christian to take note of. its pretty safe to say that as mr. raffray's investment neared the break-even point, he probably began to wonder if he'd done the smart thing after all. by the time of his death, when he'd paid over 3 times what the apartment was worth, he must have held a world record of his own... the biggest case of buyer's remorse ever. how often have we as Christians found ourselves literally consumed by the fallout of some ill-conceived (read: not-prayed-over) idea we've hatched? and its not just our finances that get hijacked, but our energy, our hearts and our minds can get diverted from our Kingdom service as well. when we fall into such traps, it takes our focus off of God and the plans He has for us... nothing will stop a Christian in his tracks faster than guilt and regret. they can suck the life right out of a person. of course, it should be noted that at such times in our walk, our focus was no doubt already off of Him, hence the reason for many of the mistakes we make.

God gave us our brain, and He wants us to use it. mark wegley has an awesome (long, but awesome) post about this right here. but just like if somebody were to give me the most souped up mac on the market, i'd be tracking down jeff noble for as much guidance as i could get before booting that sucker up. in the same way, God wants us to seek Him out when we have decisions to make, and herein lies the value of hiding His Word in our heart.

truth be known , i had actually intended to publish this post before "this world is not our home," but for reasons unknown to me at the time, i went ahead and posted that one first. after hearing and reading tj's and mark's responses, i realize God wanted to use that post at that particular time, and i'm humbled and awestruck by the thought. oh that i would always be so sensitive to His leading...