Silence is sometimes golden...

Today, Meg and I were reminded once again how we shouldn't be so surprised when God answers our prayers despite our lack of faith in his ability to do so. Let me explain...

We live in an apartment complex that is managed by a nationwide company. This particular company has decided to introduce all of its properties to a new "luxury" service called Valet Trash. What this service provides is a trash can to be placed on your porch that is picked up and emptied by the service workers and carried to the dumpster Sunday through Thursday nights. Bear in mind that the dumpster is not too far away, but the management was employing this service so people would no longer let trash gather on their porches...blah blah blah. The catch is that the service would be free until you renew your lease - then it would be $30 per month. And it is not an option...you have to pay for it to live here. Well, suffice it to say, we were not very happy with this given we have to renew next month! We complained...we complained some more...we voiced those complaints to the management...and we voiced those complaints to anyone else who would listen (probably even you who are reading this right now...). We just were not prepared to pay that much money for something that we were perfectly capable of doing on our own.

Add that to the fact that rent is generally climbing in the area of Charlotte that we live. A quick search on various rental websites showed that similar units in our property were going for up to $100 more per month than what we were paying. So, now, we were faced with the possibility that our rent would go up $130 per month and we were just not sure how we would be able to afford that. So, we prayed... a lot. But in the back of my mind, being the planner that I am, I was already preparing to have to move.

Well, today I talked with the leasing consultant to get our new rates for the next year. She did some calculations and preceded to tell me my options. She started with the 12 month lease: $98 more per month. Okay...then the 15 month lease option: $107 more per month. I was sweating a little at this point and then asked what a 13 or 14 month lease rate would be. She proceeded to tell me that she had to call her boss to make sure it was right but either a 13 or 14 month lease would only be $30 more a month - exactly the increase of the trash service. The rent does not change at all and, needless to say, she was as completely surprised as I was.

So, what did we learn? "Lord, help our unbelief!" We prayed and God answered. Not solely because we prayed but because he is good and he ordained that we would go through this "trial" so that our faith in him would be increased. As he always does, he provided exactly what we needed. The real kicker - Meg got her yearly raise last week and it more than covers the $30 a month increase. Praise God!

The other thing that I personally learned was that next time I think about complaining, I should remember that silence truly is sometimes golden...

~Dan