Sometimes, Things Don't Work Out: Then What?

Sometimes, we make the best plans, and they don't come together like we'd hoped, or prepared for, despite every good effort.

This blog post is about that "sometimes".

A few months ago, John and I decided to do co-living with my dad; the arrangement looked something like, we pay 60% of all costs, he pays remaining 40%; he gets master bedroom with ensuite and enough room for a private living room; we get two smaller (but still spacious) remaining bedrooms for our family; we all share the remaining living space (two living rooms and a 'reading area'). The benefits - financially and otherwise - would have been great. Unfortunately, coming together didn't work so well, for reasons I'd rather not share, and it turned out to be a very expensive decision, in the midst of a season when we need the really inexpensive decisions.

Some lessons you learn sooner than others. This one was quick. (As a sidenote, John & I are still pro-community-living!)

So here we were (still are here!), in a 2600 square foot house that never really felt quite like home, trying to determine our next step. Why did we come to this town in the first place? Technically, there is nothing really here "for us"; it was a great city for compromising location between us and my dad, but now that it's just us, we could be closer to Toronto, we could be in a more self-employed city, we could find other places.

But then God started to bring things together for us: there's a reason we're here right now in this city, and it's a good one. I'm sure in time we'll see all of the pieces come together, and we're confident they're community driven reasons, which is good enough for us. We have found a great little place to move into within the next week (at a lower overall cost!), and are believing that we'll be dedicating the next year to building community.

You can get this awesome graphic and desktop background here. It's been such an encouragement to me!

To us, it's becoming obvious that we are "supposed to" be in this town for this season, in this community for this season. So, while we believe that some awesome things could have come together had we all been all in on community living, God has faithfully provided and won't let us down.

Sometimes, we make the best plans, and they don't come together like we'd hoped for, or prepared for - and I am confident this "sometimes" will happen many more times in our lives in the future: We're people and people are flawed. God, however, never lets us out of his gentle gaze.

So when the "sometimes" comes along, we can pick up, brush off, discover a creative solution, and move forward with every confidence that we can still continue to live in His will. If this happens to you, don't sweat it. You're not alone: we've all made plans, sometimes even ones based on how God has called us to live, and they fall apart. You can still move forward; you don't need to save face (we all mess up, let's own it); and you can see it as an opportunity to trust the creative things God is going to do next.