“When God closes a door, he opens a window.” This phrase has bothered me for a long time. I mean, he’s God! Why would he make me sneak through a window like a burglar? That isn’t what I would expect from God who has been telling me that he alone has put value in me…that I am his beloved bride…that his son defied death in order to make me pristine for him. Why would he then ask me to sneak out a window like a criminal that has something to hide? Why would he treat me as though he is ashamed of me even though my sins have been separated from me as far as the East is from the West? The answer? He wouldn’t.
I think that we use this phrase in order to allow ourselves off the hook for our frantic lifestyles. Think about this: It’s summer break and I am having so much trouble having quality time with people I love because we are all so busy with camps, classes, vacations, swimming, running errands, doctor visits, trying to get a workout in, cooking dinner…add our work schedules to the mix and the rental house that I’ve been trying to get ready for market again and it has been downright overwhelming. On top of that, I have girlfriends that are as frenzied as I am and they are still planning to add more to their lists of responsibilities while confessing that they are already frazzled as it is.
Enough! It is time we stop pretending that staying busy adds value to ourselves or our world because it doesn’t. All it does is rob us of our most valuable and limited resource…our time. We can’t get it back and it is dwindling for every single one of us.
What does this have to do with the phrase about the door and window? Glad you asked! I think God does close a lot of doors for us…but I don’t think he does it in order to just make an obstacle course out of our lives…I think he does it out of love, protection, and a desire to help us make the most of our most limited and unpredictable resource…our time. Maybe instead of frantically looking for a way out when God closes a door, we should choose to sit down in the quiet and just be with God. Instead of defining our value by how much we can accomplish during our time here, we should define it by what can be accomplished IN us during our time here. Instead of sneaking out through a window in order to keep our delerium-inducing pace, we should recognize that love and peace is waiting for us in the very place we are trying to escape.
How are you doing with this? Is life flying by at a break-neck speed? If someone had to determine your priorities and the only data they were given was how you spend your time, what would they believe you love most? Least? How do you feel about that? Is it true?
My prayer today is that we would quit buying into the lie that we must be busy in order to be valuable. I am praying that we would learn to quiet the noise of our busy lives…that we would quit looking for a way out when God closes a door…that we would quit viewing intimacy with our God as something that is not urgent (because when we stop communing with the God who is love, we will forget both how to extend love as well as how to receive it.) Much love friends,
Beks
angelfacedaggie 