OPEN and CLOSED DOORS

 

Hello, friends…long time no hear from me.  I just can’t seem to find the motivation to write and lately no time to write either.  But I think my life is about to wind down (here comes boredom), so maybe I will get back into more blog writing.  I really do love it.   Anywho….here’s my latest thoughts.

I’ve been working on a Sunday School lesson on Chapter 7 of Mark Batterson’s book WHISPER.

The book is about the 7 love languages of God…or ways in which God speaks to us.  One way is through DOORS.

As Batterson states:  ”One of the most mysterious and miraculous ways in which God reveals his sovereignty is by opening and closing doors.” I’m sure if we take time to think about it, each of us could probably recall more than a few doors that God has opened in our lives as well as a few that He has closed. 

To give a personal example: 

my parents separated at the end of my 8th grade year (and soon after got a divorce) but as a result SO many doors in my life weren’t just closed…they were slammed shut!  My mother, little brother, and I moved to a nearby town where my mother worked…my big brother stayed with my father in the town I had lived in all my life and where my grandparents and most of the rest of my extended family lived.  All in one 12 mile trip down the road, I lost my family, my friends, my home, my school (which I loved) and my church (which I loved.)  The door was literally shut on everything I had ever known and it was HARD, VERY HARD.   

But at the time, I had no idea how many BETTER doors God was going to open for me.  I made new friends…7 of which I am still very close to today (my VALLEY GIRLS that I’ve written about here), I was able to graduate from a much better high school that had many more activities to be involved in, and I met the love of my life who eventually became my husband.    

 We all have our own stories. If each of us wrote out our stories about open doors and closed doors and put them together, that would make a very, very heavy book!

GARTH BROOKS sings a song about UNANSWERED PRAYERS:

   Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers

   Remember when you’re talking to the man upstairs

   And just because He doesn’t answer

  Doesn’t mean He don’t care

  'Cause some of God’s greatest gifts are

     Unanswered prayers.

 

And it’s the same with doors.  

We love it when God opens doors for us, especially to things or circumstances that we’ve been wanting…and we thank God for these opened doors….but I know there are times God has closed a door on me and I just kept banging on it, wanting God to open it.  That’s how I felt when my parents divorced and my world was turned upside down.  But for one thing, banging didn’t help then and it never will because God has a plan for all of us and it definitely includes both open and closed doors. 

I encourage you this week to think back over your life and look for those opened and closed doors…and maybe even write them down so your grandchildren can read them someday.  And if God closes a door on you in the future, just remember…it may be so He can open a BETTER one.

 

Maybe the ol’ country boy needs to write a new song:

         Thank God for OPEN and CLOSED doors.