Monday, January 12, 2015

Do Dreams Equal God's Will?

My husband and I have a dream. 

One day, we'd really love to have a Bed and Breakfast, or an Inn with a little cafe attached. I even have a name for it, what kind of theme I want for each bedroom, and even what the cafe decor would be like. We'd even have a large space for classes, meetings, or small conferences.
The location would be somewhere in the scenic countryside, easy access to highways but far enough away from everything that you can enjoy nature. In fact, I want enough acreage to grow our own food and have a path for at least a one-mile round-trip nature walk, complete with benches in secluded spots for romance and bird-watching.
And at least one gazebo. Gotta have one of those.

It's all perfectly formed in my head. He would run the cafe, and I would run the Inn. Shangri-la, here we come!

But is that what God wants for us?

We gave the idea serious thought a few years back before we moved here. Church life was becoming stagnant, and we were at a loss as to where to go. We found large acreage here and there- once there was even a plot about eight hours from here- but nothing ever worked out. We either couldn't get the financing or it would be too far for him to commute to work and back. Yes- he still needed to work before our plan came to fruition.

Then God stepped in and monkey-wrenched our plans. We weren't meant to be in an inn in the boonies. Not yet. He wanted us just a little further down the road than we were, slapping us right in the middle of a city community.

And we love it!

We have a new church we love dearly. The church is community oriented. I'm involved with ministry and community events, and so are my husband and kids. My husband became a deacon in this church a few years after we joined, and it was the best thing that could've happened for us and the community.

Are we giving up the dream? Nope. We might get there, we might not. The dream might even change. The point is that we are letting God show us the path before we start looking at the maps and making plans, because He's probably going to change them anyway. It would be great to have our own inn (at least in my mind) but when God tells you to be somewhere else, you go. He has a way of putting you in places you need to be, whether or not you think differently. 

It's a God thing. Annoying sometimes, I know. I'm like a kid who never ate carrots before and refuses to eat them because they're different. Then He makes me eat them and I like them. Dagnabbit.

I don't know where we'll be in the next few years, but it will be somewhere that's hospitality oriented. That hasn't changed, and we're good at it. And if He offers me something different again, I'll give the thing a new taste, whatever it is. Because God is going to make it good, no matter what!

1 comments:

Unknown said...

So many of my dreams have faded or changed over the years. The things I wanted so desperately as a young adult never happened, and I'm glad they didn't. The life I have now is not what I had dreamed, but is so much more. I still have dreams . . . Life seems pointless without them, sometimes . . . But they are simpler than they once were and far more flexible, because if God doesn't want it, then neither do I.

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