My evangelical friends say that when God closes one door, he opens another. My Catholic friends say that when God closes a door, Mary kicks out a window. Another friend observes, “It is what it is.” And not long ago, I heard another person say that when God closes one door, he opens another, but it’s hell in the hallways.
It’s important to know what you think God does, or doesn’t do. Some people trade a God that they can worship for a sense of security, attributing things to God that make them feel better about where they are, but which imply that God does things for which we would imprison or institutionalize a human being.
That’s a high price to pay for security. And what always worries me about that kind of thinking is that sooner or later, people who attribute evil to God will come to hate God as well. It can be hard to rethink God once a set of concepts have shaped what you believe.
I don’t believe that God inflicts us or does us harm. I do believe that come what may, God is with us.
The apostle Paul was a veteran of closing and opening doors and, in another, era might have described his own life as a revolving door. But he was clear about one thing: in good and bad times, he belonged to Jesus. And that, it seems to me, is the only place to stand.
In and out of doors — or even in the hell of hallways — Jesus is with us.
A friend gave me a small gift last week. A keychain. The inscription reads: Lord, help me remember that nothing is going to happen today that You and I can’t handle together. It encourages me that God actually needs me. Those doors either will open or close because of Jesus first and foremost but the inscription did speak of me being a co-partner. With such outlandish love and trust lavished upon the created the question becomes what doors? If even the gates of hell will not prevail against God’s child surely we with Jesus can handle doors!
Carol Lawson
I’ve tried so hard to instill this in my kids, especially with my now unemployed oldest and my younger son, who is about to finish college. It’s not an easy time for anyone to be trying to find employment, and I keep them in prayer, knowing that there’s nothing that God can’t handle. I remember my mother telling me (when I worrying about some small thing) “Worrying is telling God He can’t handle things.” I’ve stayed with that thought a long time…and try my best to remember that with God, nothing is impossible!