“The door that closed kept us from entering a room, but what now lies before us is the rest of reality.”
Parker Palmer
It was a fairly normal morning. 5 AM alarm buzzed and played some tingling chimes. I put the coffee on to brew. Exercised for my body and my brain. Picked up my Bible and journal like I do nearly every morning. As pen found paper, the I fought back frustration of circumstantial situations and a door God shut.
Things that had been outside my control had spun a way I was not expecting. So leaning into my Heavenly Father via written word, I verbalized my lack of understanding. Somehow through the years, I have found the safest place to speak is in silent words printed on a page in a spiral bound book of paper. As I asked the Lord why this particular door seem closed, locked, and dead bolted shut, I felt the whisper of heaven in my heart say “Shut doors do not mean I have shut you out.”
Let me clarify, I have never heard the audible voice of any person of the holy trinity. No booming voices from heaven have broke the sound barrier. No sweet songs of angels singing over me. Yet, I believe God still speaks. On this particular wet fall morning, I needed him to and he did. I think all of us feel this way at some point. We stand beating a door with bloodied knuckles anxiously asking God to open it up. In our human perspective we see the secured door as God shutting us out from something we feel we want, maybe even deserve. When in truth, there may be nothing behind the door meant for us anyway. Yet, when the door refuses to swing open, we are hurt, upset, even discouraged.
Closed doors are often distractions from the open blessing God does have for us. I wonder how many times I have been standing at the wrong door looking for God to open it. When all along God was just trying to redirect me to another door that he did have.
I am working hard on some things in me, they do not come easy. I am trying to see closed doors as blessings not barriers. I am trying to learn to quit knocking on doors God has no intention on ever opening. And I am simply trying to listen better because the closed door that I think I want to enter in, may just be a way of God redirecting my steps to door I need to go through.
When we “knock, knock” God already knows who’s there. He does not have to ask. He opens the door. Welcomes us in and says I have been waiting on you. Just find the right door.
