Dry Bones in San Francisco

In the middle of the pandemic (June 2020), I felt compelled to move to San Francisco. I didn’t really have a reason to move there. In fact, everyone told me NOT to move to SF. However, I was coming out of a really bad season of postpartum depression and felt like my environment was triggering bad memories. I hated being in Southern California. I needed a change of scenery and San Francisco was the easiest place to get to from LA in the middle of a pandemic. I soon realized that I didn’t have San Francisco money. I wasn’t making any money at Wyzerr anymore, and I only had part-time hours at PopCom. After some calculations, I reasoned the most I could afford to spend on rent was $2,750. $2,750 would have gotten me a lot of space in most cities in America, but in San Francisco, the options were slim.

Around this time, a church that I attended virtually was doing a mid-year fast. I had never did a spiritual fast before but I was intrigued. Fasting is INTENTIONALLY abstaining from things that are pleasurable for spiritual development. Most people fast from food, but others fast from social media, TV, sweets, or anything that you know you like to do. The idea is that you give up something you normally spend time on in order to give back that time to God to pray and seek Him more than you normally do. I was all in. I decided to fast from TV, social media, and food for 5 days. Everyday I would pray for guidance and discernment about moving to SF. If it was in God’s plan for me, give me a sign. It wasn’t long before I stumbled across a Craigslist listing for a sublet in a luxury building in SF right near the water. It was for a furnished unit on the 27th floor with clear views of the Bay Bridge from the window. I was shocked that the unit was being listed for $2,750, the exact amount that I could afford to pay. I looked up a comparable unit on the building’s website—-starting rate for this unit was at least $4,300. I quickly sent not one but THREE emails to the listing. Each one bounced with an error message. I was devastated, and assumed it wasn’t a real listing. After all, the offer did seem too good to be true.

A few days later, I finally get an email from the lister. He apologizes for some issues he was having with his email and confirmed that the listing was still available. We immediately scheduled a Zoom call so that he could give me a virtual tour of the unit. I was actually driving when his message came in so I pulled over and took the call from the side of the road. He was only 30 seconds into the tour when I told him “yes! I will take it! Yes!” He laughed and said he would get the paperwork started to transfer the lease to me. I asked him why he was listing the unit for so much lower than what it cost him. He was obviously paying the difference between the actual rent amount and what he listed it for. He paused and said “honestly, I don’t know. But I haven’t been living in that apartment since the pandemic started and have moved back home. I don’t really need the money, and would rather the apartment go to a good person that would really benefit from it. You just seem like you could really benefit from being here. I don’t mind paying the difference.” The man would be paying at least $2,000 a month to cover the rent difference for me. I chuckled to myself. This had God’s fingerprints all over it. There was no other way.

I moved into the apartment in late June 2020 and only lived there for the remainder of the lease, which was about 4 months. However, my time there was life changing. The apartment was so beautiful that it was hard to feel bad about anything when you wake up every morning with such gorgeous views from your windows. I couldn’t help but feel grateful to God every day for really simple things that I had neglected to notice for awhile. Things like clear skies, the ability to see, the ability to breathe, etc. It was during my time in this beautiful apartment that I started a daily gratitude list, began tithing consistently, and hosted my weekly virtual Bible study group, all of which are habits I still do today, 18 months later. All three of these activities have had significant impact on my life. My weekly Bible study fills me with so much purpose, peace, joy, and wisdom. I don’t think I would have ever started it if it wasn’t for me living in that specific apartment.

My time in San Francisco was short, but the impact and lasting change it had on my spiritual life and mental health is profound. It reminds me of the passage of Ezekiel 37 that talks about the Lord breathing life into dry bones. I came to San Francisco dead on the inside but came to life while I was there. I witnessed God change me in ways thats hard to put into words but so apparent in the way I now live, talk, and interact with people. It all started with a fast so I’ve adopted a monthly spiritual fast to help keep me rooted in God’s word and close to Him. I highly recommend spiritual fasting to anyone that is at a major juncture in your life (like I was) and need guidance on what to do next. If you have any questions about fasting, feel free to reach out to me. I love to share my notes on fasting! Below are some photos from my time in San Francisco.