{"id":2323,"date":"2023-01-26T09:36:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-26T14:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=2323"},"modified":"2023-01-26T09:36:00","modified_gmt":"2023-01-26T14:36:00","slug":"trading-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/26\/trading-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Trading Up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to this reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>.
\u00a0
What could you get if you started with a bobby pin and kept \u201ctrading up\u201d for items of greater value?
\u00a0
Demi Skipper, a 28-year-old store manager who was renting a house near San Francisco, dreamed that she and her husband might one day own a home of their own.\u00a0 In May 2020 she decided to barter a bobby pin on Craigslist.\u00a0 Could she keep making swaps until someone actually gave her a house?
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Things began humbly.\u00a0 The hairpin fetched a pair of cheap pink earrings.\u00a0 That led to four margarita glasses, then an old vacuum cleaner.
\u00a0
Demi traded the vacuum cleaner for a snowboard, then made swaps for some headphones, a laptop, and a camera.\u00a0 After she launched a TikTok account to document what she called her Trade Me Project, the journey began to get considerably more interesting.\u00a0 Within a few months she had traded for an iPhone and a vintage 2008 Dodge Caravan, whose owners insisted on driving it to the Skippers\u2019 front door all the way from Minnesota.
\u00a0
Why hang on to an old Caravan when you can swap it for a dark green Mini Cooper convertible?\u00a0 Demi made the trade.\u00a0
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Then she suffered a setback.\u00a0 She traded the car for a diamond and sapphire necklace supposedly worth $27,000.\u00a0 But multiple appraisals estimated its value to be less than $3,500.
\u00a0
Resilient in the face of disappointment, she slowly traded her way back up. \u00a0Her swaps included a Peloton exercise bike, two more cars, and three tractors.\u00a0 She hit pay dirt when someone took the three tractors in exchange for a Chipotle celebrity card \u2013 a rare object that entitles its bearer to a year\u2019s worth of free food and a party for 50 people catered by the restaurant.
\u00a0
It just so happened that one of the world\u2019s greatest fans of Chipotle \u2013 a Canadian woman who planned to share the food with the needy \u2013 was willing to pass along a $56,000 trailer in exchange for the card.\u00a0 The trailer was equipped with solar panels and a Tesla Powerwall, which is a battery system for storing solar energy.\u00a0
\u00a0
That piqued the interest of a Tennessee woman who flips properties for a living.\u00a0 Would the Skippers be willing to trade the trailer for one of the 15 houses in her current inventory?
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That\u2019s how Demi, on the day after Thanksgiving 2021, traveled from California to Clarksville, Tennessee, to accept the keys to a cute fixer-upper \u2013 a two-bedroom, one-bath house with a spacious yard and garden.\u00a0 A bobby pin had been transformed into a house with a market value of $111,000 \u2013 and it had come with no mortgage and no fees.
\u00a0
Demi had made 28 transactions over a period of 18 months.\u00a0 Along the way she learned a great deal.\u00a0 \u201cI think I\u2019ve gotten much better at seeing the negative and flipping it to a positive,\u201d she told an interviewer.
\u00a0
Not all of Demi\u2019s trades were wise.\u00a0 But compared to an unfortunate character who appears in the first book of the Bible, she was brilliant.
\u00a0
In Genesis 25 we meet Esau, the son of Isaac and Rebekah.\u00a0 Because he was born just minutes before his twin brother, Jacob, he stood to inherit the two greatest gifts that parents of that age could bestow on their children.\u00a0 He will receive both the family birthright and his father\u2019s blessing.\u00a0 The birthright means that the oldest son gets twice as much inheritance as any other male heir.\u00a0 Because Isaac is the father of just two boys, two-thirds of the estate will fall to Esau.\u00a0
\u00a0
We learn soon enough, unfortunately, that he\u2019s not the brightest light in the chandelier.\u00a0 One day when his stomach is bigger than the part of his brain reserved for strategic planning, Esau staggers into the house.\u00a0 He\u2019s spent the day out in the open country.\u00a0 Jacob has just whipped up some appetizing lentil stew.\u00a0 \u00a0
\u00a0
\u201cQuick!\u201d Esau says to his little brother, \u201clet me have some of that red stew. \u00a0I\u2019m famished!\u201d\u00a0
\u00a0
Jacob, whose name means \u201cGrabber\u201d (so-called because he arrived in the world with his hand wrapped around Esau\u2019s ankle), now displays what will become a well-earned devious reputation.\u00a0 \u201cNo problem,\u201d he says.\u00a0 \u201cLet\u2019s make a deal.\u00a0 I\u2019ll trade you a bowl of this steaming hot red stew for your birthright.\u201d
\u00a0
Alarm bells should be going off in Esau\u2019s head. \u00a0This is a terrible trade.\u00a0 He\u2019s about to throw away one-third of the family\u2019s net worth, which should be coming to him in the future,<\/em> for a single meal today<\/em>. \u00a0But he answers, \u201cI\u2019m starving!\u00a0 What good is a birthright if I\u2019m dead?\u201d\u00a0 It appears Esau was definitely in the running for high school drama king. \u00a0
\u00a0
In the raw language of Genesis 25:34, \u201cHe ate and drank, and then got up and left.\u00a0 So Esau despised his birthright.\u201d
\u00a0
Over the centuries, God\u2019s people told and retold this story. \u00a0It shows up in the New Testament: \u201cWatch out for the Esau syndrome: trading away God\u2019s lifelong gift in order to satisfy a short-term appetite. You well know how Esau later regretted that impulsive act and wanted God\u2019s blessing\u2014but by then it was too late, tears or no tears\u201d (Hebrews 12:16-17).\u00a0
\u00a0
Don\u2019t trade tomorrow\u2019s blessings for something you think you can\u2019t live without today.<\/em>
\u00a0
That\u2019s the wise way to go through life \u2013 the one that allows us, at the end of all our \u201ctrades,\u201d to be in possession of a relationship with God that no one can ever take away.
\u00a0
Demi Skipper\u2019s story doesn\u2019t end with the happy day she walked into her new house.\u00a0 She and her husband have decided to trade it with someone \u201cwho really needs it.\u201d
\u00a0
All she asks for in exchange is a bobby pin, so she can start off on a whole new adventure.
\u00a0
By God\u2019s grace, may we accept his<\/em> offer of trading up momentary happiness for the deep and lasting joys of being in his kingdom.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to this reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here.\u00a0What could you get if you started with a bobby pin and kept \u201ctrading up\u201d for items of greater value?\u00a0Demi Skipper, a 28-year-old store manager who was renting a house near San Francisco, dreamed that she and her husband might one day own a home of their own.\u00a0 In May 2020 she… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2324,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[558],"class_list":["post-2323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-jacob-and-esau"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2323"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2325,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2323\/revisions\/2325"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}