How God must laugh at our well-meaning prayers that He graciously scrambles. Our industrial complex has been notoriously unfriendly. The unit to the west of us, sharing a wall, was one of the worst.
I tolerated it for eight years, then decided that I was going to deal with this demonic stronghold and make this mess more functional. (Insert amusement in heaven.)
So we launched a prayer initiative when the unit went vacant and prayed in a new tenant - who is in a business that we would never want next door to us! That was a jolt, but we decided this was Father-filtered so we would embrace them and be good neighbors.
When they moved in, I discovered I didn't have a clue in the world what it looked like for me to be a good neighbor beyond taking a box of candy to them and welcoming them. I had a very clear picture of how all the other people in the complex were bad neighbors, but at the end of the day, I only knew how not to be bad - I had and have no idea how to be a good neighbor in an industrial complex.
THEN, I realized after less than a week of their being here that they have a culture of being really bad neighbors! They are violating the rules right, left and center, with blatant disregard for anyone else in the complex.
Now I am really impressed with my ignorance. What does it look like for me to be a really good neighbor to a really bad neighbor?! I have no idea, but that is my project for the indefinite future.
So when you get quite done laughing at me, pray for a starting point in Scripture. This is not an original problem. There are great answers in the Book. I have to find the picture in the Word so I can start fixing my ignorance.