I guess I do believe this in a way. But I have a little slant on it. One door closes, another opens EVENTUALLY. That word means “an undetermined time in the future”. Most of us don’t like future, especially a future we can’t see or be prepared for.  I much rather “learn from the past, accept the present and create the future” as I once heard said. Many doors have closed on me but many have opened as well. Usually,  unexpected in most cases. Such is life.  I think survival in life, how one manages to wake up in the morning and face the world (with a smile or a frown) is about perspective.

We choose everyday the type of perspective we will have on life. When I am in a funk and having a “bad day” and my husband tries to snap me out of it, I usually tell him, I can have an off day! Why? Because being a thriver as opposed to a survivor, which I consider myself to be, means that everyday I have to choose to have a faith-full perspective on life. I have to choose to believe that God is at work in me, through me and for me. I have to determine that nothing I face in that day will cause me to walk away from God. That usually takes work because our sinful nature just wants to say the heck with this, doesn’t it? We could love the Lord, we could know without a shadow of a doubt that God has been there for us or else we would have certainly been in a seriously worse situation than anything we find ourselves in right now but still…that kind of determined thinking takes work and well, sometimes you just get tired.  So again I say, I feel entitled to my “off” day when I am pouting, crying or seriously doubting a lot of things I think I believe. In our lifetime many doors will close and we’ll wonder if it was us, if we are loved, does anyone care, do we have “skills” like Napoleon Dynamite or were we just plain off?

Many doors will open as well and we’ll wonder, do we deserve this kind of attention, why did they pick me, I must be a token Hispanic, I must be a token female, I must be both!, is this a God door or a good door?  What am I getting at? I’m suggesting that whether doors close or open, we always wonder about something. So the real lesson and truth is not in the opening and closing but in the learning of both and the choice we make to continue in the journey throughout the unexpected openings and closings of life. 

This faith thing is hard to understand. Those who don’t have it, don’t understand it. Those who have it, can’t explain it. I have a female statute on my desk that says “put your big girl panties on and deal with it!” A biblical exhortation would mention Hebrews 10:36 “For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.” And finally, a reminder that he knows the plans that He has for us, plans for good not evil, a future and hope (Jer 29:11). So whether doors open or close, we got to deal with it, endure it while we continue to walk in His will and know that even in the midst of our own confusion over our own plans for our lives (that we may have thought was HIS plans), God said he has a better plan. In that I put my trust and hope. I hope you do the same.