It’s been a heavy thinking kind of week.  Can you relate?

Have any of you sold a house and/or bought one lately?  Attracting a buyer is just a tiny first step, it seems. The buyer has to look AT LEAST TWICE at your house and choose your house out of all the other possibilities AND provide proof that he/she is financially qualified to buy your house. Then, the buyer looks at your list price and all of the “extras” inside your home (drapes, certain furniture pieces, equipment specific to your home’s maintenance, etc.) and decides how much to offer, which of the extras he hopes to keep AND when he wants to take possession of your home.  And, in the best case scenario, this buyer has the money in his pocket or a buyer lined up to buy HIS house. If not, the process of getting a mortgage begins.

In the meantime, you have to decide where you want to move when the deal on your present house has been completed.  You find one, and the negotiations begin on the future house.  You make an offer. The owner makes a counter-offer. You make a counter offer, etc. etc.

If all the dominoes line up, you have a wonderful process of buying, selling and everyone getting what they want.  If the dominoes DON’T line up, you get a big ol’ mess.  When one deal falls through, there are others down the line falling through as well.

What one person decides ultimately has an effect on a lot of other people, and the realtors are caught trying to make everybody happy.  If only all the “players” were playing by the Golden Rule:  “Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.” Matthew 7:12 New Living Translation  Wouldn’t it be amazing if everyone involved in a real estate transaction, OR ANY TRANSACTION for that matter, was committed to fairness, transparency, honesty and truthfulness?

As of this morning, my dominoes are not lined up as they should be.  Is this when a “leap of faith” is in order?  Should I assume that the buyer is a gift from God and a sign of some kind that it’s okay to move forward even when the unknowns outnumber the knowns?  Or, is this one of those times when I’m supposed to “watch and pray” or “wait patiently on the Lord for He cares for you.”

That last paragraph sounded mighty “churchy” even to my own ears.  Sometimes the next step just isn’t illuminated clearly.  Sometimes the decisions we make have unintended, uncomfortable consequences.  Sometimes WE SIMPLY DO NOT KNOW.

Reverend Junior Hill, popular evangelist from Hartselle, AL used to say, “When you don’t know what to do, just keep doing what you KNOW to do until you know what to do.”

I know I’m supposed to ask God to guide me.

I know I’m supposed to search God’s Word for biblical principles that apply.

I know I’m supposed to be fair, transparent, honest and truthful.

I know I’m supposed to treat my fellow humans (and those involved in any business deal with me) as I would have them to treat me.

Oh for a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night!!  Exodus 13:21-22 “By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night.  Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.”