Closed Doors

For Every Door You Close.....



Imagine this......You work at a prestigious firm (fill in the job for yourself), and things are going great!  You have been paying all bills on time, you have money for those "unexpected" moments, your children are doing great in school, and you have a healthy social life with a few friends.  Things are looking up in every area of your life and you are the happiest you have been in a long time.  Sounds amazing doesn't it?!   Of course it does.  Everyone loves it when life seems to run "smoothly"  without a hiccup to derail the process.

Now imagine this.....Months later, you are at your desk when you are made aware of some budget cuts that will involve the downsizing of the firm.  It couldn't possibly be you! You have been there longer than most of the employees.  IT IS YOU! 

You're thinking, "How could this happen?!" You start scrambling to speak with your boss to reconsider his decision.  After-all, you have seniority AND you are an amazing employee!  You also try to learn the labor laws for your state to see if there was something you could do to keep this from happening.  To no prevail, you have been let go.  This seems to start a flood of obstacles:  you now have unemployment, but it is nothing close to what you were making so now the bills are falling behind, on top of repairs needed for your cars and home that you can't afford and finally because you don't have the extra money to "hang out" with your friends y'all have seemed to drift apart!  You have applied for countless jobs and because of the economy there is a hiring freeze at the moment. 

You have prayed and cried over and over again, asking the infamous question of all who goes through:  "WHY ME LORD?"  Only to follow it up with, "HOW LONG IS THIS GOING TO LAST?"  Eventually that depression and despair, turns into anger and isolation.  It just seems to feel as though everything you touch turns to mud and you are over it!  Months have now passed and unemployment has just about ran its course.  You have applied to many firms and they have yet to call back.  So now you have lowered the bar in the job search and decided to put in applications (not resumes) to a few coffee shops and bakery's. 

Finally  a quaint bakery hires you on a trial basis as a cashier.  Things are going well. So much so, that the owner is trying out a few of your ideas in the company.  You're proving yourself to be a quick, idea-driven, and reliable employee!  As funny as it sounds, you can't remember being this happy at a job!  Your ideas have generated so much revenue, that the owner has offered you a partnership which you happily accept.  Things have only gone up from here:  you have created new pastries and have also teamed up with Pillsbury to take them international!  While you are soaring, you learn that your old firm has folded all together and the stock that you had in the firm (which you forgot about) has now paid out rather handsomely!  LOOK AT GOD!

My point is that sometimes when a door closes, God is allowing it to do so because otherwise you would have never walked out and closed it on your own.  I believe that God looks at us at times, wanting so badly for us to give birth to our greatness that he nudges us in the direction we need to go in.  Sure the path looks rocky and even a little dim (labor pains).  We question the process and the processor with no answer visibly in sight.  That's because we look at the situation with natural eyes, instead of with our spiritual ones.  It comes a time when we just have to remember WHO we are and WHOSE we are! You are a child of the Most High.  Our Father would never forsake us, nor steer us wrong.  BELIEVE THAT! Hold on to that, and the process won't seems as dim, or as long.

I  would often hear my mother say her prayers and toward the end she would say, "God for every door you close, I will not question it.  For every door you open I will gladly walk through it!"  This is also what I want to leave with you.  If a door closes in your life and you know that it was not due to your hand, then trust that God has something oh so much better in store for you!  He has His Master Hand in it!  Until next time, Ciao for now!