Am I There, Yet?

I read the following from Erwin McManus’ book, Chasing Daylight.  It ticked me off, intrigued me and yet, it comforted me as well.  Maybe I just need medication.  LOL!!!  Anyways…I just wanted to share:

“Remember the old cliché that if God closes a door, He opens a window?  Have you found yourself wasting too much time sitting on the wrong side of the closed door, trying to figure out when God is going to build the window to facilitate your escape?  Let me make a simple observation that could change everything for you:  there are a lot more walls than there are doors and windows.

This is not to say we don’t come to this dilemma without cause.  Every once in a while we get an opportunity, a moment that is so sweet it is virtually impossible to miss.  There’s nothing subtle about it.  It just comes at us like a fastball racing for the sweet spot on our bat, a moment so full of possibility that even we couldn’t mess it up.

…

Those open doors and windows of opportunities are wrapped around what appears to be perfect timing.  It’s what is often described as being at the right place at the right time.  It’s walking in with your resume five minutes after the employer had someone with your qualifications quit.  It’s finally going to share the message of Jesus Christ with a friend who just prayed to God, If You’re out there, give me a sign.  It’s working backstage during auditions, and suddenly they decide you have the look they’ve been searching for.

But, unfortunately it isn’t always like this.  Most divine moments need to be seized, not simply walked through.  There are many times in our lives when we thought one opportunity was God’s door and then found that it was shut at the very last moment.  In the midst of our discouragement we find God creating a new opportunity we never imagined-that would be the window.  Yet many times what we find are closed doors, locked windows, long corridors, endless hallways-in other words, lots of walls.  It’s pretty easy to see the doors of opportunity, and it is always exhilarating when windows of opportunity open before us.  What can be missed are the endless divine opportunities hidden behind the walls that can be discovered only if we go through the walls.

Some of life’s greatest opportunities are not behind doors or windows, but behind walls.  They require genuine effort.  Beyond risk they require real sweat.  Our religious integration of Christianity with capitalism and consumerism has resulted in a view of life that says if God is in it, it comes easily.  Then when the inevitable difficulties come, when we hit the wall, we either assume God is not in it or conclude we’ve made a wrong choice in our pursuit.

I’ve become convinced over the years that the most important moments to seize, the most significant God opportunities, are the ones that do not come easily.  Even when they begin easy enough, oftentimes they become far more complex and difficult in the later phases.  It shouldn’t surprise us that giving ourselves to great things comes with a cost.  After all, if divine moments were that easy to seize, everyone would be living the abundant life of which Jesus spoke.“