Doors

I have a cat who thinks wake up time is 5am…every morning. She will do everything she can to wake me up at this time. She will meow at me while walking across the bathroom, knead at my neck with her claws, walk across me repeatedly, etc. The other morning, when all the above wasn’t working. She decided to lay down next to me and lick my exposed arm. Well, I guess she didn’t like the fact that I told her to “stop licking me”, because the next thing I know, her teeth are wrapped around my arm. I’m awake….and not happy.

Groggy and furious, I grabbed the cat, tossed her into my bathroom and closed the doors. For the next half an hour, I listened to her pawing at the bathroom doors and meowing off and on, desperate to get back into the room she so desired to be in.

For those of you who don’t know the layout of my house, my bathroom has a pass through to the laundry room. I took the door off so Hazel (the cat) could get to her litter box and food from anywhere in the house. The laundry room door is always open for this same reason. Keep this in mind while reading this story…..

While laying there, listening to Hazel’s futile attempts to get back in, (I am still steaming mad at her for biting me) I started to get frustrated at her. Didn’t she know that she could go through the laundry room and roam the entirety of the rest of the house? Why did she keep wanting to be somewhere that I told her not to be?

Then it hit me…I heard God say to me….”Why are you still banging on that closed door?” “Why are you still trying to go to places I told you weren’t for you?” How am I much different than Hazel in that moment?

I heard God say to me “I have this big, and wonderful, world out there for you to explore. Why are you still so focused on getting in this one room?”

Like Hazel, we can become so wrapped up in our own hopes and desires that we miss the bigger picture. If we took the time to look around and assess where we were, we would see other doors that were open, and ready for us to walk through.

What door is God choosing to close for you that you keep trying to get back into? What would things look like if you just took a moment to reflect and look around at where He has you at in the moment? What other doors could you walk through?

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

Sometimes the doors will stay closed, that place isn’t where God wants you. Often times you will walk away from the closed door, and into an open one, and not look back, excited about the world you see before you. Sometimes you will look back, but only to reflect on the smallness of what you were called out of, and the greatness of what you were called into.

Sometimes, you will wander around, enjoying the open doors God has given you, but somehow end up back at that closed door, which is now open. Like the other morning for Hazel, the door closed on her, but only for a short time. I wasn’t ready for her to come back into the room yet. But eventually, the situation inside the room became a good environment for her to walk back into.

No matter the situation, if you trust God to open, or close, the doors, you know it will be the best situation for you. Maybe God is calling you into a “bigger room”. You will never know if you don’t walk through the door.

“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.” Isaiah 26:3

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6