Ever since I joined the ranks of the unemployed, I asked, "Why?".

• I had a GREAT job as a server at Red Lobster, only
  working 20-30 hours per week and taking home up
  to $700.00 every week.
• I had a nice running car and it was going to be worth
  10 TIMES what I paid for it after I refurbished it.
• I knew LOTS of great real estate professionals and I
  was starting to get more referral business from my SOI.

Then the storm started:

• My car started going on the blink more and more often.
• I separated with Red Lobster and lost the income the job
  produced.
• I was evicted from a great townhouse I was living in, just
  minutes walking distance from the church I attended.
• My income went from prosperous and comfortable to
  NON existant overnight.
• I had to sell my car because I did not have the money to
  get it fixed.
• My computer went down and I could not access the hard drive
  with all my businesses real estate related material.

So, now I was without a car, had no income and no way to support
myself, and my prime real estate lead generating mechanism was down for the
count. Over the next 5 months this is what happened to me:

• 4 times in a row I had jobs taken by others the day before I
  came in to apply, after learning of the openings.
• A Kentucky Fried Chicken Assistant Manager position I HAD
  BEEN hired to take was taken from me by a hiring freeze ONE
  DAY before my background check came back to the hiring
  manager. This position would have paid me between $28,000.00
  to $32,000.00 per year, plus preformance bonuses.
• My bicycle got flat tires EVERY time I used it to go to church and
  to interviews.
• I was taken advantage of 2 times by restaurants that DID hire me. They did NOT want to pay me legally, but by cash under the table. One owner would not pay his employees on payday and when he DID pay me my last paycheck, he ripped me off on the amount he was supposed to pay me.
  

So, like Job, I asked "Why, Lord?"...... and I got no reply..... and I fell into a deep
depression.

• I started sleeping over 12 hours per day.
• It was an ordeal to just get out of bed every day, because I knew
  I had no hope of getting hired anywhere, because of what had happened
  to me in the privious list.
• My postings to ActiveRain© almost fell to nothing.
• My 600 person real estate database was locked up in my hard disk
  drive after my computer locked up on me.
• A relative who told me she would help me by paying my rent backpeddled
  on me ONE DAY before my rent was due this month.
• I am very likely getting eveicted TODAY from the place where I am living.

Finally, after asking so long, "Why, Lord?" I heard Him speak today when I went out to
take a walk and pray at 4:30AM.

I was trusting in the wrong things.

• I had a nice runing car that I trusted in to bring me to wherever I drove it.
• I had a nice job that I trusted to put food on the table and give
  me a comfortable living.
• I trusted in a computer system I built myself that helped me in my real estate business.
• I trusted in my top ranking real estate websites that drew in leads regualrly from Google, Yahoo and other search sites.

I had forgotten to trust in God as THEE number ONE priority in my life.

I had shifted my trust to what He had provided for me, NOT in He who had provided those things.

My priorities had shifted and now I was paying the price.

I started to see things differently in church, in the midst of the worshiping congregation,
week after week and began to see things from a different perspective:

• Re-making and shifting my priorities to make the Lord my trust and strength.....
  NOT my things.....
  
• Trusting He saw what was going on in my life and he was overseeing everything,
  and that he will reward me for my obeidiance.
• Learning to recieve Gods favor, not based my my view of myself, BUT
  on who Jesus was within me....and who God the father was in the Bible to His
  trusting children.
  
• Seeing that FAITH is different from TRUST..... and how TRUST builds relationships;
  while faith is the currency of a relationship TRUST is the vehicle through which it is
  expressed.

So, I am a work in progress.... aren't we all?
THESE Princples are what is being worked into my
heart and life in a MUCH deeper way:

• Trust in the LORD with all your heart 
  and do not lean on your own understanding.
  In all your ways acknowledge Him, (That HE is your source, NOT
  your "things") and He will make your paths straight (successful).
  Proverbs 3:4-6
• He (Jesus) answered: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your
  heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and
  with all your mind' ; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' " Luke 10:27
• For thus the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, has said,
  "In repentance and rest you will be saved,
  in quietness and trust is your strength." Isaiah 30:15
• For Gods commandments are a lamp and the teaching (torah)
  is light; and reproofs for discipline are the way of life.Proverbs 6:22-23
  

"Blessed is the person who is rebuked and disciplined by the Lord...
for God is treating you as a son or daughter, NOT as a hired servant
or as an illegitimate child."

(My paraphrase)

Thanks to: www.flickr.com and ~~
c hobbs , www.pictobank.com ,Mamluke
for the GREAT pictures that express my
emotions and situation I am going though in life!!

Written by:

Alexander Harb  ~~~ Founder of "Christianity and Real Estate"

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