Finding an office when there was “no room in the inn”

I thought I would send a small demonstration­—which was a big one to me at the time.

It has to do with finding an office, which has been a major bugbear since I first started my business four years ago. We’ve been through three offices altogether, and last May we moved into my apartment because I couldn’t afford the rent of the (not very nice) office we were in at the time.

There are about eight of us, so being in my very small flat wasn’t ideal, but it was cheap. However, in January one of my neighbours (who had lost a dispute with me over the noise from her apartment) told the local council that I was running a business from my flat, which we’re not supposed to do. I was given a month to find an office.

I did want to move, but rents are generally very high, even with the economic downturn and hundreds of empty offices in the city. I complained to a practitioner friend that it was like there was “no room in the inn”—all those empty offices space but nowhere I could afford.

My friend said that 2,000 years ago it may have seemed that there was “no room in the inn,” but the place where Jesus was born was exactly right for him. It was warm and snug and safe. Yes, it was a humble manger, but it had everything he needed, including protection. It was “under the radar,” so Herod’s people weren’t aware of his location.

I’d never thought of it that way. I had always thought of Jesus’ birth as properly humble and non-materialistic, but it hadn’t occurred to me that the stable was also a safe refuge, exactly what he needed, not simply what the world allowed.

I didn’t ask the practitioner for help with my issue, I just accepted the idea and continued to look with a lighter heart. That week I was at a networking event where I told everyone I spoke with that I was looking for a cheap office. One woman said she knew just the place. A friend of hers had recently taken over a large, unused building and turned it into office units for small businesses like mine. She said she was already starting to show people around and people were signing up, so I should go as soon as possible.

The next day I made an appointment to see the building. When I went, I realised that it was exactly what I needed. It was cheap, close to where I live, and right in the heart of an area with businesses related to mine. Not only that, but the building works on a collaborative, almost club-like, basis where everyone tries to help each other, rather than keeping separate as one tends to do in ordinary office blocks.

When I signed the lease (it’s a rolling lease, so we don’t have to sign up for years at a time), I told the woman that the office was just what I was looking for and more, and I was grateful that I could afford it. She said, “I bet that even if you could afford one of those posh offices in town, you wouldn’t want one now, would you?” I agreed. One of those expensive, posh offices wouldn’t give us what this building gives us.

In last week’s Bible Lesson we read that “all things work together for good to them that love God” (Rom 8:28). I am genuinely grateful to my neighbour for forcing me to look for an office when she did. These offices were snapped up very quickly. If I hadn’t heard about them when I did, I could have missed out.