It’s late. Really late. As I sit here writing this, Monday morning is quickly approaching… in fact, it’s just after midnight. Monday morning is officially here. This blog should have already been posted…and here I am just now writing it. And if I’m being truthful…I’m tired. It’s been one of those weeks when life left little room around the edges. You know the scenario when life doesn’t go as planned.
Work. Responsibilities. Things that need to get done, and there are people I love needing attention.
Sometimes what feels like an interruption may actually be God making room for something we need.
You know those weeks.
You get up in the morning already thinking about the list. Then three things get added to the list before you finish the first one.
And somewhere in the middle of everything that has to get done, you realize there are still a few things you really want to get done.
Like writing this blog. So here I am. And the irony isn’t lost on me. Because the story I planned to tell you this week is about another season when life didn’t go according to my plan.
Except that time, God didn’t just rearrange my schedule.
He cleared it. Completely.
Proverbs 3:5
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.
While Something Was Being Built, Something Else Was Falling Apart
Last week, I told you about Carmen standing in our backyard at Chateau Mariposa looking into the woods and asking…
“What if?”
What if we put a firepit over there? She could see something I couldn’t see yet.
And eventually, that little clearing became a place where neighbors, friends, and guests would sit around a fire, laugh, talk, and share life together.
But while something new was being built at the Chateau…something else in my life was about to fall apart.
My job.
Carmen and I had started a business through a faith-based franchise system years earlier.
We built that business for fifteen years. Eventually, we hired a general manager, moved to Florida, and I began working for the franchise headquarters as a business coach.
I loved coaching business owners. I had spent seven years doing it. Then the company was sold to a private equity firm.
Over the next few years, we watched more than a dozen friends and coworkers lose their jobs. One by one. And when that happens long enough, you begin wondering…
When will it be me?
Eventually…it was.
Probably the Worst Business Trip I’ve Ever Taken
I had left for the Tampa airport at 3:00 AM that morning so I could get to Baltimore early that day to help a brand-new franchise owner named Perry launch his business. Perry picked me up at the airport, and by 7:30 that morning we were sitting in a diner having breakfast.
He was excited. He had already landed his first customer. While having breakfast, we were talking about our plans for the day when my phone lit up. It was our administrator.
“I was just let go.”
My heart sank. A few minutes later, another text. This time from one of my closest coworkers.
“I was just let go.”
Uh-oh. I tried to stay focused. This was Perry’s day. He was starting a new business, and I wasn’t going to allow whatever was happening back at headquarters to ruin that for him. So after breakfast, we were on the road to meet with his new customer.
Then my phone rang. The screen on my phone lit up with the caller’s name…
“Eric.”
Now, here’s where the story gets a little ridiculous.
I had a high-school classmate named Eric who had convinced me months earlier that I should organize our upcoming class reunion.
Then, like Houdini, he disappeared. For six months.
Apparently, Eric’s strategy for planning the reunion was convincing me to plan the reunion. And suddenly, on this particular morning, after disappearing, Eric was calling me.
I ignored him as Perry and I were on our way to meet with his new, and first, customer. I needed to stay focused! Then he texted…
“Scott, call me as soon as you can.”
Seriously, Eric?
I texted him that I was in Baltimore working with a new business owner and would call him later.
Another message came almost immediately.
“Can you pull over and call me? We need to talk.” Fine! Eric was determined.
Perry needed to stop at his office, so while he went inside, I called Eric. I hit the little phone icon button from the text message, and the phone started ringing…
Except…
it wasn’t that Eric. It was my boss Eric.
And suddenly those messages from my coworkers made a whole lot more sense.
“Today Is Your Last Day.”
Eric didn’t waste much time. “Scott, today is your last day with us.”
I sat there staring through the windshield. A few minutes earlier, I was irritated because I thought some guy from high school was pestering me about a class reunion.
Now…I didn’t have a job.
Right after that very brief conversation, HR called and told me to have Perry take me back to the airport.
But I couldn’t do it. This guy had just invested in a business. I had flown to Baltimore to help him get started. He had his first customer waiting for us.
So I told HR:
No.
I was going to help Perry with his first customer, make sure he knew what he needed to do next…
And then I would go to the airport.
Maybe it was stubbornness. Maybe responsibility. Or maybe I simply couldn’t imagine finishing seven years of coaching any other way. But we went to work.
Later that afternoon, I boarded a plane back to Tampa. The company had flown me from Tampa to Baltimore that morning to train a new owner…
Only to tell me shortly after I arrived to fly back home. You can’t make this stuff up.
Okay, God…What’s Next?
For the first time in more than thirty years…I didn’t have a job. No position. No title. And no Monday morning waiting for me. At first, I was actually pretty optimistic.
“Okay, Lord. I’ve been thinking for way too long that it might be time to move on anyway. I guess You just made the decision for me.”
Or, as Jeff Foxworthy might say, “Here’s your sign.“
I figured I’d find something quickly. Five other people had been let go that same day.
Before long, one found a job. Then another. Then another. Eventually, all five were working again.
I wasn’t.
A few months passed. I applied for jobs I thought were perfect for me. Nothing.
Another application. Nothing. An interview. Nothing. And eventually my confident prayers began sounding different.
“Lord…what’s wrong with me?”
I had spent much of my life telling other people to trust God. Now God was giving me an opportunity I hadn’t exactly requested.
I was going to find out how much I believed what I’d been telling everybody else.
What If Nothing Was Wrong?
Looking back now, I can see something I couldn’t see then. I kept asking:
“God, why don’t I have a job?”
But maybe I was asking the wrong question. Because just a few weeks before I lost my job, Carmen and I had been invited to join six other couples for a twelve-week journey with one of our pastors and his wife.
It wasn’t supposed to be another Bible study. We called it a kin group. The idea was that we wouldn’t simply study the life of Jesus. We would learn how to actually practice the ways of Jesus together.
We met every Thursday. And we ate together. Prayed together. Shared our lives. Became more honest about our struggles. Those six couples who had started as people we knew from church…we started becoming family.
Twelve weeks came and went. Nobody wanted to stop. So we didn’t. And here’s what I couldn’t see at the time.
Had I still been working, I don’t know if I would have had time for it.
There would have been trips. Meetings. Phone calls. Coaching sessions. Deadlines. All those things I had convinced myself simply had to get done. Then suddenly…
They were gone.
The very thing I was complaining to God about—“Why don’t I have a job?” —had created space in my life for something I desperately needed.
Maybe God Was Making Room
I want to be careful here. I don’t believe every difficult thing that happens means God caused it. And when you’re in the middle of something painful, the last thing you need is someone giving you an easy Christian answer for something that isn’t easy.
Losing my job was real. We still had bills. We still needed income. I still didn’t know what was next.
But looking back, I can see that God used that season.
I had more time with Carmen. More time with our kin group. And most importantly…more time with Jesus.
My hurried prayers became less hurried. For years I had tried to fit God into whatever space was left in my schedule. Suddenly…
I had space.
And somewhere in that unwanted season, something began changing inside me. I was learning to trust Jesus as my provider. Not just preach it. Not just tell someone else to do it.
Trust Him. For real.
Your Everyday Life
Maybe something in your life isn’t going according to plan right now.
Maybe something ended. Or maybe a door closed. Or maybe you’re waiting for an answer. Maybe something you thought would happen by now…hasn’t.
And perhaps you’ve been asking the same question I was:
“God, what’s wrong?”
I can’t tell you why you’re in the season you’re in. And I certainly wouldn’t tell you that every disappointment is secretly something wonderful. Sometimes hard things are simply hard. But I do think there’s another question worth asking:
“God, what could You do with this?”
That’s different. Instead of only asking God to get us out of the season, maybe we can also ask Him what He wants to do in us during the season.
Maybe there’s something He wants to teach us. Someone He wants us to notice. Something we’ve been too busy to see.
Maybe He wants us to slow down. Maybe He wants us to trust Him in a way we’ve only talked about trusting Him before. Because sometimes…
what feels like an interruption may become an invitation. Trust Him with what’s next…
Challenge of the Week
Ask a Different Question – Think about one thing in your life right now that isn’t going the way you planned. Maybe you’ve spent a lot of time asking: “Why, God?” That’s okay. I’ve asked it plenty. But this week, add another question: “God, what do You want to do in me while I’m here?”
Don’t force an answer. Don’t pretend everything is okay when it isn’t. Just pay attention. Because sometimes we become so focused on getting back to the life we had planned that we miss what God is doing in the life we’re actually living. So be it.
NOTE: I couldn’t see it sitting on that airplane coming home from Baltimore. All I knew was that morning I’d had a job…and that afternoon I didn’t. But God could see something I couldn’t. There was a group of people waiting to become family. There was a deeper relationship with Jesus waiting for me. And there were lessons about trust I couldn’t learn from a paycheck. And experiences were coming that I never would have imagined. In fact, God was eventually going to put me behind the wheel of an Uber. And there was the missionary from India just earlier yesterday morning…and I’m crying about my life? But those are stories for another week.
A Thought to Take With You – When life doesn’t go as planned, don’t only ask God to change your circumstances. Ask Him what He wants to change in you.
What is your journey like?
My journey started like a parallel journey to the Prodigal Son – Luke 15. This, as you can see, is becoming quite the journey. Jump into my journey with me, now 17 weeks along, and see what your journey looks like as we walk life together. Here are the links where you can go back and jump into the journey with me:
- When Love Found Me – This is the introduction to it all.
- Before Love Found Me – God was pursuing me before I knew it.
- God at a Distance – I was looking in the wrong places.
- When God Broke In – God met me in my brokenness.
- After the Tears – Following Jesus became a shared journey.
- Packing Up Faith – Obedience required leaving the familiar.
- Making Room – God transformed our home into a place where others could encounter His love.
- Trusting God’s Hand – Even when it doesn’t make sense.
- When You Think You Need One More Miracle – and no matter what, God does it again!
- From Waiting to Wonder – Sometimes God does His greatest work in places we can’t wait to get out of.
- When God Colors Outside Of The Lines – Creating our own boundaries and limiting God.
- This Is The Way – God is whispering to you, “This is the way, follow Me.”
- Seeing What Others Can’t – When God shows you something that others can’t see…yet.
- Redeeming The Ruins – Where we see ruins, God sees redemption. Discover how He transforms broken places into something beautifully new.
- A Story That Started Before You – Sometimes what we think we’re starting is actually a story God has been writing long before we arrived.
- Ministry is a Firepit – Sometimes ministry is simply making room for others to feel seen, heard, and welcomed.
- “Still” Under Construction – God can use us even while we’re still under construction.
- What If? – Faith asks, “What if God sees possibilities where I only see obstacles?”
- What If? – Faith asks, “What if God sees possibilities where I only see obstacles?”
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