“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and He will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6

My life is blessed beyond anything I could ever have imagined. Katie (my MAIN blessing) and I have owned a rental house, on a canal, leading to the Gulf of Mexico, that has been paid off for years. Both blessing and heartache have come with the sweat the equity required of ownership. Mostly mine. Lately, my blessing has become VERY expensive!

Now I’m not talking about ‘money’ expensive! It’s WORSE! Being October in Florida, the summer heat has gotten to me. As it always does this time of year, I’m tired of sweating! But my rental house is demanding even MORE of it! Unhappily, I really do NOT know what to do about it. Honestly, I have simply become worn out, tired and irritable! What’s worse… I don’t like this guy living inside of me because of it.

With any house, and especially with a rental, there’s always work to do. Seeing houses all over town selling at phenomenal prices, we decided to see if WE could ‘cash in big time!’ We called our dear friend, also a real estate agent, and told her, “we don’t know if God wants us to sell or keep this blessing. So let’s see!” With houses flying off the market in hours at WAY over market prices, ours has been on the market for 3 months! I’m beginning to feel like an idiot!

I have NEVER learned ANYTHING the easy way. Having owned 6 properties in our marriage, NONE of them were easy. Money, sweat, time and tears tore me apart on a regular basis as I continued to ask God, “WHY did we buy this again and WHY is this SO HARD?” As with my working career, I should have learned to accept the hard fact that God does things the HARD way!

If God says ‘X,’ I want ‘Y’! And if I DON’T get ‘Y,’ or a ‘WHY,’ I have a terrible habit of whining, conniving, negotiating and HUMPHING until reality REALLY hits! Sadly, this attitude can slow my spiritual growth substantially. Not a good thing for a preacher! It’s a good thing I was saved early in life!

So me and God have an issue. Or at least ‘I’ do. Because ‘I’ was the one who set the terms for this ‘deal.’ And I think I already know what you’re thinking. Maybe I should have just flipped a coin!

Are YOU trusting, leaning and submitting? Or are you ‘negotiating’ with God?