The Power of More

Today I should probably write about something funny. For example, I could tell you about a doctor’s visit a couple of weeks ago where I was told that I had warts somewhat odd skin abnormalities on my elbow. 

“Warts?”  I said.

“Not warts, necessarily.”  He said.  “It’s a special kind of wart.  Not a full fledged wart.”  (You realize I’m paraphrasing.  He probably threw some Latin words in there for fun.  But in reality – what I heard was that I had midget warts.)

The midget warts required a prescription medicine to fully de-wart me.  When I went to the pharmacy to pick it up, Pharmacy Lady handed me a little bag which was obviously studded with diamonds, because it was going to cost me 90 bucks to carry it out of the store.

“90 dollars?  You realize I want to buy the one drug, not the whole company.”

“Yessir.  You see, you have an 87 day supply.”

“I don’t need an 87 day supply.  I need to rub this on my war- um, skin abnormalities twice a week for two weeks.  That’s four rubs.  Just squeeze some on my finger and I’ll be on my way.  I’ll protect it until it’s time to rub.”

“Um…we can’t break up the set.  It’s gonna be 90 dollars.”

Now, I’m not that great at math, but 90 divided by four is …um…carry the one… more than 20 bucks per squirt.  At this rate, I’m going to have to twist a toad on my skin once a day for the next eight years to get my money’s worth.

So you see, if I wrote about something like that, you’d laugh.  It would be funny.  But today is not so much about funny as it is about reflection.  Specifically, reflecting on the events of the last several days. 

Many of you know that my wife and I have been in house mode for the last 19 months.  That’s right.  House for sale.  19 months.  Over the past few days we’ve had a potential offer, found a potential house to buy, worked through potential financing, developed a potential ulcer, and on and on. 

Also over the past few days, we’ve realized that our own wisdom is terribly limited.  We know just enough about origination fees and points and interest rates and contracts to be dangerous.  During this time – as I’ve frequently done over the last year and a half – I’ve had the opportunity to call in some trusted friends to act as my advisors.  These are people who know their stuff when it comes to real estate law, finances, mortgages, and just good common sense.

With all of these people, it’s been easy enough to ask the intellectual / financial / strategic questions.  “What offer should we accept?”  “What should we offer?”  “What should we look for in a loan?”  “What questions should we ask?”  But the most important question was centered around something much more important…

“What would you do if you were me?”

That’s where brains and hearts diverge.  Brain answers will give you data.  Heart answers will give you direction.  Brain answers keep you from losing money.  Heart answers keep you from losing perspective.  Given enough time and books, I can pick up all the brain answers I need.  But it takes a friend who cares about me to cut to the chase and answer…

“What would you do if you were me?”

Getting back to The Decision … it still hasn’t been made, incidentally.  As a matter of fact, it looks like we’ll very soon be entering month number 20 in the madcap universe of house selling.  But the point of the post is that there is power in more.  More brains.  More hearts.  More insight.  More care and concern for me than even I can show for me.  Because these people have my best interest in mind, and they’re going to give me the heart answers as well as the head answers.

To my circle of advisors, you know who you are.  Thanks for indulging my phone calls, my e-mails, my text messages, my unannounced trips to your office.  You are my “more” that God has graciously given me, and I appreciate you.

Speaking of more…there’s one more tube of $20 skin abnormality cream I gotta rub on.