“We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” -C.S. Lewis

Mr. Lewis reminds us to shut-up and listen. Recently my family had the opportunity to purchase a building that would fit perfectly into our lives. The owners lowered the price to an amount, I boldly said “We can do it.” Then I checked with God.

My family was happy, I was happy and the owners were happy. Both Christian families assumed the whispering of God in the deal.

On Monday, with a smile on my face, I entered the mortgage specialist’s office. An hour later I left with a tight lipped grin. On Tuesday the Realtor came to the house. The beautiful house with an authentic Appalachian bridge access was “unique.” Unique in this context is similar to “unfortunately” in editor’s response to a query letter.

After the Realtor left, the tight lipped grin was replaced with a frown. My family was not happy, I was not happy and the owners were not happy. My first reaction is to charge ahead to make everyone happy. That is the wrong reason. As a Christian I should shut-up and listen.