The Cancelled Airbnb and my uncle Brian

In July of 2025, I traveled to Detroit to celebrate my birthday. I wanted to bring family and

friends together, so I began looking for an Airbnb where we could host a gathering.

The first place I found was perfect, though a little expensive. My girlfriend suggested we look

for something cheaper.

Later that day I mentioned both places to my cousin. She said she would check with Tony, who

knew several people renting Airbnbs. A short time later Tony sent me an address and phone

number.

When I looked at the address, I realized something surprising.

It was the exact same Airbnb I had originally chosen.

Everything seemed to be lining up perfectly, so we made the reservation and paid the deposit.

But when we arrived in Detroit, something unexpected happened.

The day before check-in I called because I hadn’t received a confirmation email. That’s when

they told me the reservation had been cancelled. The city had temporarily shut the property down

until the owner received a permit.

Suddenly the place for the gathering was gone.

At the time I didn’t understand why. But I reminded myself of something life had been teaching

me for years—that even interruptions may be part of God’s plan.

Later that day my girlfriend and I took my sister to the mall so she could pick up a few things. While they were at the counter, I stepped aside and quietly prayed, asking God to help me stay

present and trust that everything was unfolding the way it should.

When we finished, I went outside to bring the car around.

As I backed out of the parking space, a man walked directly in front of my car.

Something about the way he walked looked familiar. It reminded me of my uncle Brian.

So I rolled down the window and called out:

“Brian!”

He turned around.

And it was him.

I hadn’t seen him in nearly thirty years. The last time I had seen him was when he worked for me

at a business I owned that eventually went bankrupt. I had always regretted not being able to pay

him what I owed him.

When he walked up to the car, the first thing he said was:

“Marky Mark, where my money at?”

We both laughed.

After thirty years, we were standing face to face again in a random parking lot.

Even more remarkable was that I had asked my mother about him three separate times during the

previous six months, yet no one had seen him in years.

Then suddenly—on that exact day, at that exact moment—he walked directly in front of my car.

That’s when I realized something.

If the Airbnb reservation had not been cancelled, we would have been at the house preparing for

the gathering. We never would have gone to the mall. I never would have been in that parking

lot. And I never would have seen Brian.

What first looked like a disruption had actually been part of the arrangement.

Everything had to happen exactly the way it did for that moment to take place.

Moments like this remind me of the story in 1 Samuel 9, when Saul went searching for his

father’s lost donkeys. What appeared to be an ordinary errand ultimately led him to the prophet

Samuel, where he discovered the purpose God had already prepared for his life.

The donkeys were simply the reason Saul ended up where he needed to be.

In the same way, a cancelled Airbnb became the reason I was standing in that parking lot at that

moment.

Life often unfolds like that.

What we see as inconvenience may actually be alignment. The events we question may be the

very things positioning us for what God has already arranged.

And once again I was reminded that nothing in life is random.

Every detail plays its part in the story God has written