Dear God, ANSWER ME!

When we put our house on the market, I had hoped and prayed that God would sell our house "quickly and for more than it's worth". In part, I wanted it done and sold, and in part I wanted Him to get glory. After more than a month on the market, having lowered the price, and having seen a number of people tour the house only to pass it up and buy something else, I became bitter and frustrated. I mean, the emotions of being in two places at once, and having to keep the house clean all the time, is one thing... that's very real, but not what I'm talking about here.

Today I sat looking out my window asking God why I can logically understand that He works things for my best, but why He doesn't often seem to work in dramatic, "miraculous" ways in response to my prayers. The way I saw it, there's no reason why God shouldn't answer my prayer to sell the house quickly and for good money. After all, it would bring Him glory! Right? Well, then it dawned on me...

I was looking to bring Him glory by saying "God sold our house for more than it was worth and in less time than others were selling!". But this is rarely how God works... He most often works by affecting change in peoples hearts and lives, and less frequently in their physical comfort and bank accounts.

God is not as concerned about my physical well being as He is about my spiritual well being. My "unanswered" prayers regarding our house do not indicate His love for me... my development does. Because of this, my prayers that God would sell the house in a way that brings Him glory, are being answered. In the end, what brings God glory is how I've grown through this. He is a God of relationship and fatherly love, not a genie or divine vending machine.

UPDATE:
I figured I should amend this to reflect what happened after this... I had the above revelation and the next day, here's what happened.... I was in my office, frustrated that nobody was looking at the house. I was aware of the above, but still wondered why nobody was viewing the house as compared to early on. I came out to the kitchen and voiced this to Corey... I then came back to the office and prayed "God, I don't know why nobody is calling to see the house. Please just help me to enjoy my time with my family, and to cherish them while we wait". Literally one minute later, a call came that someone wanted to view the house in an hour. They came and looked at it, and within a couple of hours we had an offer. A full price offer within a month and a half of listing in the worst housing market in at least 30 years.

KU falls to a mid-major....again.

I've got all kinds of frustration over this one... but really, KU losing to VCU is much the same as their loss to UNI last year. And, because of that, I'm just going to copy and paste part of my blog entry from LAST March:

KU has some serious flaws that haunt them almost every year. And they are pretty consistently the same every year. The turnovers were a relatively new anomaly this year, but that's the only "new" thing. The two main things that have killed us almost every tournament for the last 15 years are:
1) Our help defense habitually leaves pure shooters. Whether it's by design, or by habit, our help defense continually leaves pure shooters too open. Nobody should EVER leave a shooter like Ali Farokhmanesh open... even momentarily. The instructions to his man should be "I don't care what else is going on, even if someone has a clear lane to the hoop, you stay with Farokhmanesh!" It's someone like this that kills us almost every year.
2) Very similar to the above... WHERE IS OUR ALI FAROKHMANESH? I mean, I understand recruiting the biggest, fastest, most athletic guys possible, but how about some shooters? The retort will probably be "what about Reed?" or "what about Collins?". Well, they are fine shooters... BUT, they can't shoot from anywhere in any position. A pure shooter has a quick release and only needs an inch to get his shot off. He can do it off screens or on the pull up. He can hit his shot anywhere, anytime. The problem with the guys we recruit is that they generally have slow releases and need space to shoot. Collins is the exception, but he's hardly a "shoot in any position" or a "shoot coming off a screen" type of guard. He generally needs space, and his penetration ability affords him that space.... unless his penetration isn't working (see Northern Iowa game circa TONIGHT!) I can't think of the last KU player who could do this... who could shoot quickly and in any position. (maybe Jeff Boschee? Though late in his career he was far from pure...)

And just to head anyone (Yes I know I'm talking to myself here...) off at the pass. No, our perimeter shooting is not good. Generally we get good open looks from our talented frontcourt or from penetrate and kick-outs. We don't have a single shooter, nor have we for many years, who can pop off a screen quickly and deliver a jumper. We've had a few who COULD have, but didn't for lack of aggression (see Rush and Henry)

Coach Self... You are the man. You're doing an awesome job. I never thought anyone could replace Roy Williams, but you've done it fantastically. My one piece of advice for you, from a completely outside and uneducated perspective: RECRUIT A PURE SHOOTER. A Steph Curry, an Ali Farokhmanesh, a Mickey McConnell... or, at a higher level, a Lacedarius Dunn or JJ Reddick. They're usually lightly recruited and all from mid-major schools. Almost every mid-major program has one, so they can't be that hard to find. My guess is that big schools pass them up because they're short, or slow, or can't dribble, or whatever. But come tourney time.... they kill you.

The next couple of years may be tough for KU fans as we are likely to be severely lacking in the 3-pt shooting department. If Henry DOES bolt for the pros, then next year we'd have guards of Taylor, CJ Henry (if he stays) Johnson, Little, Releford, Morningstar, Reed, Woolridge... as well as a assorted backups. The only proven shooters in the bunch are Reed and Morningstar, both of whom need a lot of daylight to get their shot off. Johnson, Henry and Woolridge are relative unknowns beyond the arc. Taylor, Little and Releford are all below average deep shooters. Oh, and ALL of these players (with the possible exception of Woolridge and Henry) need lots of daylight to get their shot off.

So... next couple of years may be more of the same. Good inside presence, lots of athletes, but inconsistent perimeter shooting.

Yep. Same thing EVERY YEAR. KU loses because the other team gets hot from 3-pt range and KU goes cold. I swear... EVERY year. I'd look it up and post the historical stats, but who cares? 2 for 20 isn't going to cut it boys... Coach Self: PLEASE RECRUIT A SHOOTER. And by "shooter" I mean, someone who can shoot it quickly, coming off screens and with little daylight. A gym rat.

As a side note, assuming the Morris twins don't come back (they're both locks to be drafted high in the NBA), KU will be weak next year; lacking shooters and big men. If you're lacking big men, but have quick guards that can shoot and create havoc defensively, then you have a chance. However, if you lack big men AND lack shooters.... it'll be a long year.

Emerging from the Quarantine

The Norris family appears (I don't want to say this too hastily) APPEARS to be emerging from our annual 4-6 week bout with the Chuck Norris Super-flu. This years variety was complete with a visit to the ER (for Cooper) and several consecutive weeks of mild fever along with a cough that doesn't quit and ceaseless streams of snot.

Chuck Norris Approved this Flu.

So, in the midst of our bout with the flu, we decided to list our house. It's on the market now and several people have come to look at it. And, when they came, we loaded our sick crew into the van (in other contexts "sick crew" might be something really cool) and went to sit in the store parking lot. We're discovering that it's hard to be patient and to wait for our house to sell. Hopefully we don't have to keep it spotless for too long... though we ARE learning to trust God more and more through it.

A good thing

This 5 minute video is a good thing and I should watch it daily, if not hourly, to remind myself of who I am.
Tim Keller - What is the gospel?