Trust and Real Estate

Local opinion seems to be that our peak real estate market ends annually around the end of July. Ours has been on the market since February and we have dropped our price XXX dollars, but still no offer. (I would mention numbers, but comparing home markets is not the point here.)

Over a month ago, we were at an impasse. No showings for over 2 weeks, and if we lowered the price anymore, we would almost certainly owe the bank, and have to delay departing for Kenya by a couple months, while we did some physician temp work to raise some income. We had stopped at a rest stop so Maggie could eat, and I wandered around the trees praying. Is this some way in which You will build our trust in you, by coming through at the last moment, and we just need to wait? Is this just a terrible market, and we need to use common sense, cut our losses, and get on with making a little extra money? I didn't know, so a la Gideon, I prayed for some kind of indication, namely that if we weren't supposed to lower our price, we would get some showings, and soon.

Within ten minutes, our realtor called with a showing, and within 24 hours, we had 4 showings set up. Showings came in steadily for the next several weeks, and it was a great time of building trust, and feeling like all was going to come together just in time.

And it still might. Yet time passes, and nothing.

Here is what I have learned: that the increase of the glory of God is the end that matters, and therefore when something is out of my hands, I can rest and trust God.

I am not good at this, though I am learning. I'm a physician. I'm a professional. I'm an American. I keep things in control. I don't end up in a lot of situations where something important is out of my hands. But I'm also moving to Kenya. With my family, no less. If I thought that this pattern of control would still continue indefinitely, I think everyone can agree that I was mistaken. So I badly need to learn this lesson of trust, and it may be God's severe mercy to teach it sooner rather than later.

I can fall on the rock, or the rock can fall on me. Once again, mercy strips bare some place I thought there was no wound. Some days I keep the big picture in front of me. I think of God's sovreignty and his glory, and I don't worry that it'll be distrupted. This morning, I was riddled with anxiety, and paced around the grass in the backyard, repeating ancient wisdom: Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

This truth is medicine. By God's mercy, I now know that I need it, and that knowledge cannot be measured.