(We experienced a “closed door” at the Jarvis House this week. This is what processing looks like in my head…)
Hear that?
It’s the sound of a door closing.
You’re walking forward, careful but confident, approaching a door way that appears to be open. Just as you are readying yourself to cross the threshold into a new adventure, the door slams shut.
This isn’t the first time it’s happened, but somehow the thud of that closing door still echoes as dull and loud in your heart as always.
It sounds a lot like a shattered dream.
A missed opportunity.
A failed plan.
There’s a part of you that wants to go and knock on that impenetrable door and shout, “No! You’ve made a mistake! This isn’t right!” But you know that kind of knocking will only lead to sore knuckles and defeat.
Because you know…
That door is just. not. going. to. open.
So you take a step back to get a different perspective. You turn your head this way and that, and try to see something about it that you didn’t before. It has to be more than just a solid obstruction preventing you from getting out and moving forward with what you set out to do/be/find.
You’ve heard stories of closed doors that hold secret messages . Words like, “I’m protecting you,” or “Detour”, or “Wrong way”.
But this particular door has no such inscriptions. No indication that the steps beyond it would have been a dead-end or a bad mistake.
Others have told you tales of closed doors set between open windows. Opportunities on either side of an opportunity. And though it takes a little more maneuvering to make it through one of these openings, progress continues and new dreams take flight.
But there are no windows next to your massive door. Just walls.
Then there’s the stories of those who cut out a small “doggie door” within the closed door. They manipulate their way through a too small opening and force their way through the blocking door. They will make it happen regardless of the cost or consequences.
But that’s not you. Doggie doors were made for dogs.
No secret message. No windows. No doggie door.
No way out.
So you sit. Just sit. Pitying yourself, sure that you will die right in front of that door. That ugly, forbidding, dream stealing door. Never moving, never changing, never growing.
Your only focus is the door that said, “no”.
Then something gets your attention. It’s faint at first, but grows louder as you get up off the ground and start walking. It rings like music and laughter, and sounds as if it springs from hope and promise. Where is it coming from and how can you find it?
So you tune your ears to its direction and keep your eyes focused for signs of its whereabouts. The words are becoming a little more distinct and you swear you can hear your name intermingled in the song.
You look up from your carefully placed, deliberately moving feet and you see something that you’re certain came out of nowhere.
The walls are still there. But they are lined with dozens of doors!
Open doors!
This is where the music comes from. It’s Opportunity’s voice! Every door is flung wide open, and she is beckoning you to walk through to find your way to something you couldn’t have imagined.
The choice is yours.
So many doors.
You pick the door that suits you best and take a step toward the threshold. Would this door close, too?
But Opportunity gives you her hand and welcomes you in.
“We’ve been waiting for you.”
And the memory of a closing door gently fades into oblivion….
Psalm 37:4-5 – Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He will do it.
Proverbs 3:5-6 – Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
Isaiah 43:19 – For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.
