Lakeland Seventh-day Adventist Church

Right now Patty and I are twisting in the wind of the housing market. We are on the last month of our apartment lease, we've already lost one house—three days before closing, and our fingernails are almost gone. Here's what's happening. . .

Now we are working with a bank on a foreclosed property. The bank and their real estate agent appear to have only one boss—Benjamin. They wanted not to respond to our offer until the weekend was over perhaps so that they could see if any better ones came in. It seems they have taken their time signing the contract while saying we only had a few days to get inspections and financing. Finally the contract says, in real language, “We reserve the right to pull the rug out from under you, even on closing day if we want, for no reason at all!”

That's the real world, the way things are on this earth. And it can get much, much worse.

If we are praying, “Your will be done,” how do we pray that “on earth” (Matthew 6:10)? The real earth, where things get ugly?

The prayer has to start to be answered in one of the ugliest places I know, my own heart. This is where the temptations come down to, and that is where the prayer begins. “Your will be done” has to be prayed starting right here, right now, in my own life if it is ever to reach anywhere else “on earth.” When my fingernails are down to the quick, “Your will be done on earth,” has less to do with the ugliness of those things imposed on me from the outside than how ugly I get on the inside.

The attitudes and actions of the bank tell me they believe it's all about the Benjamins. Down at the quick, who do I believe it's all about?