There Is a Yes Waiting After a Long Line of No’s

As I have often shared, patience is not a well-developed fruit in my soul. The Holy Spirit is hard at work on this one in me, still. And as I currently journey through stormy waters, I have a feeling the One to Whom the winds and the waves obey has a major thematic web with a series of interesting lesson plans on this subject for me right ahead.

For starters, my family and I are in the middle of a Real Estate adventure. After living in the same area for 15 years, we just moved to a new house in a new town. The experience has been rather melancholic, to say the least. We are pretty much settled in our new home, but haven’t been able to sell our old one yet. This comes as I am facing other major/scary stuff in my own personal life/health too, which magnifies whatever feelings and emotions I may be experiencing.

Needless to say, the fact that our old house hasn’t sold yet is playing on my impatience. I am rather anxious about it and would like to have it sold soon so I can write that very important check mark next to this item in my long list already. Many people have come to see it over the weeks, but nobody has made any offers. I keep telling myself that the Lord has a buyer already picked out for our house and that it is just a matter of time. In reality, I am very nervous about time passing and the house sitting empty. I want this God-chosen-buyer to show up now! I want it sold in my own time. I have way too many other things on my plate right this moment, so I need to make room! God understands this, doesn’t He? It needs to happen now…I’m not being unreasonable in my request? Am I?

Well, perhaps it may not be an unreasonable request; but in His plan, it is just not time yet. He knows, however, what I need, and He gives me exactly that. He has not brought in the buyer to our doorstep, but He has provided me with something better. He has brought to me the right Real Estate Agent to get me through these trying times. Tiffany’s cheerful disposition combined with wisdom beyond her years, a great head over her shoulders, and above all, a heart of gold which seeks the Lord makes her the perfect person to be handling the sale of my old house at this time.

The other day, after patiently accepting one of my many rants (I try to control them as much as possible, but sometimes I just need to vent…) she said something to me which has been instrumental as a guiding principle in this rather emotional process. She wrote me a reply that read something like: “In this business we get a lot of No’s before we get a Yes, so I’m excited every time I get a No because that means I am closer to the final Yes!”

WOW, that blew me away…

Reading that was like having an epiphany, one that applies to life itself. Not just in Real Estate, but in the business of life, we surely receive a lot of No’s before we get to that one Yes we’ve been waiting for, so why get so upset and desperate every time we hear one more No…we should rejoice instead, since that only means we are getting closer to the Yes! It is a wonderful perspective that has the potential to turn rejection into joy!

I want to see my old house inhabited by a family who loves it and who is ready to build happy memories in there, just like we did. I want to drive by our old street and see kids jumping on the trampoline in the backyard or running through sprinklers in the summer just like my sons did. I want the worries over added expenses to go away and relax in my new home. But for now, the Lord is telling me to wait. So next time we get another: “No…it’s just not the house for us…” as a feedback from a visitor, I will try to rejoice for after the long line of No’s awaits a final Yes which will make it all worth the wait.

Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD. Psalm 27: 14

but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint. Isaiah 40: 31