Many of you have come by the store to express sympathy, empathy, sorrow and well wishes. I wonder if I have met all of you with the right response? Some days I am flippant, some days I am eager to share in your feelings, and some days I really don't know how to feel. This going-out-of-business-so what's next stage is...different. It's challenging, exciting and just plain different. When you begin a business the exit plan never reads: "I plan to close out due to a trademark issue." That's not typically where pen meets paper. Usually it sounds rosy and glamorous. Things like "pass down to my children" or "sell it when it becomes profitable" are at the top of the list. "Legal reasons" ~ not so much.
Thoughts overwhelm me as I look back to 2008 and try to look forward to 2013 and beyond. And through this pensiveness I felt the urge to share. I apologize in advance if this is too much but sometimes it just feels necessary.
Many of you know that I profess to be a Christian. While that means many things to many people, for me it means that Jesus Christ is Lord of my life. In my current circumstance I am so grateful for the relationship I have in Christ. While the circumstances surrounding Sole Obsession Footwear closing aren't rosy or glamorous, I feel at peace. I know God is in control and that His plans are always good. Whether they make sense or not isn't really important. What's important is that He tells me in Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." Some days it's easy to forget that promise. But I know it to be true, I believe in it, and so I march on with certainty that God's great plans are still to come.
On my heart tonight is the reality that "losing" or "closing" a store is really not that monumental. By next year my family will have moved on and we'll still have one another, we'll have our family and friends, and we'll be okay. But there are so many issues in our world and right in our neighborhood that ARE monumental. My daughter's school mate losing her mom to cancer this week, a wonderful man from church who has been battling cancer learning from the doctors this week that his days are numbered, a family struggling to make decisions on cancer treatment for their precious young daughter. She is battling cancer for a third time and is only 7 years old. Haiti - still just a city of ruins after the devastating earthquake in 2010, families trying to make their way after the rise and fall of Detroit - daily having to worry for their safety and the safety of those around them. The list goes on folks and unfortunately doesn't get much better. If you go down the road of disaster it is long, wide and never ending. Thank goodness we can cling to good news and bright futures. For if we truly seek the Lord His promises are also never ending. His promise is eternal goodness. "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:23.In light of all that sorrow and suffering my only response can be "this isn't so bad". It's unfortunate, it's a big huge bummer, but it's okay.
“I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid." John 14:27
