What is The God Layer?

Coincidences vs miracles

God is always at work. He can accomplish a gazillion goals simultaneously by weaving perfect webs and chains of events and people. As we go about our day-to-day business, The God Layer works with and through and around us. Sometimes God connects us with the right person at just the right time; or He illuminates today why He taught us a certain lesson months ago.

We can call these coincidences, or we can believe God is a miracle worker. For example, when I look back at how God placed me in real estate, gave me experiences and lessons with clients and transactions, and then inspired and helped me write this book, I see an amazing string of miracles.

He also gave me the perfect phrase for the book title: “The God Layer.” I explain the concept in the first chapter:

Picture a layer of glass placed on top of a precious artwork for framing, or a sheer ornamental veil laid over a bride’s beautiful face: “The God Layer” is God’s higher purpose overlaid on our daily lives and work. The God Layer makes everything we do more meaningful.

Photo by Ardi Evans on Unsplash

The goal of the book is to encourage awareness of God’s presence in our daily work. God allows and wants us to partner with Him! Once we are aware of The God Layer, we will see our real estate transactions and relationships in a whole new light. The God Layer will elevate our earthly real estate work to His eternal work.

There is a chapter (4-3) titled, “When your offer is miraculously accepted: God is always at work in the background.” It tells the story of a first-time buyer and the string of miracles God worked for us. We had found the perfect condo for her but the loan officer we’d been working with said his bank needed at least 20% down to lend on this building; she had 5%.

We found another lender who could do the loan (first miracle), but I didn’t know any loan officers at this bank. I scanned their website and remembered a loan officer I had met at an industry event. I had never worked with him but called him up. He was away on vacation but still jumped in to help us.

When we submitted our full-price offer, the listing agent told me he didn’t have any other offers. But after a couple days of silence, I had the sinking feeling the seller had received another offer. Sure enough, an all-cash offer had come in, also at full price. We assumed the seller would choose the all-cash offer over our financed offer.

The next miracle was that the seller was a woman with compassion, and saw a younger version of herself in my buyer. She remembered how hard it was to be a first-time buyer and gave us an opportunity if we could offer a little over asking.

After sleeping and praying on it, my buyer agreed and we opened escrow. A couple days later I called our loan officer. I wanted to thank him and start the transaction on the right foot, since I had never worked with him before. He told me another “coincidence” that shocked me—the most amazing miracle of all!

The loan officer was a close friend of the seller! When she saw his name on our pre-approval letter, she immediately called him. Their conversation and her confidence in him added to her willingness to take a chance on a buyer with 5% down.

Even when we are oblivious—for example, the random connection with this loan officer, who happened to know the seller—nothing is unplanned for God. The God Layer is like an app on our phone that's set to run continuously in the background. Even if we have the 'God Layer app' closed, God is always working on our behalf!

You may not (yet) believe in God or miracles, but I believe the book has practical help and encouragement for any real estate professional. Scan through the Table of Contents below and you’ll see familiar career milestones and transaction dilemmas. You don’t need to read the chapters in any order: just pick the chapter or topic you need that day, read, and reflect.

Faith and beliefs aside, I hope this book helps us see the good in even the worst moments on the job. Glenn Kelman, Redfin CEO, puts it perfectly in his Foreword to the book:

An agent can be one of the most powerful forces for good in another human being’s life… No other industry has so many highs and lows, and The God Layer is a silver-linings playbook for how to handle every single one.

The God Layer represents the parts of our work that exist and extend beyond the transaction—even into eternity. May God bless you as you find true purpose and meaning in your work.

You can order here from JPL Books or here on Amazon.

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