Beyond Belief

In a short while I’ll be changing into my cycling gear and heading out into some less than pretty weather conditions. With that being the case I thought it appropriate to revisit a post that I published a few years ago.

Kicking Down Doors

For the past couple of days I’ve battled headwinds as I’ve cycled to work. As I’ve pushed against the wind I’ve been thinking about the difficulties we face on the journey of life and how they can impact us.

I guess that a lot of the time we would prefer life to just roll along smoothly without hassles but we know that’s unlikley to happen. To be truthful, while I’d rather not battle headwinds all the time, I don’t really mind them that much. I know that when I’m pushing hard and seemingly getting nowhere that I’m building strength. I enjoy the challenge of getting to my destination knowing that I’ve perservered and I have a sense of achievement that I’d never have if it was all downhill with a tailwind.

Finding the right direction

As I was thinking about how much good the ride was doing me this morning, I started wondering about reasoning that says that we know we’re following the right direction for our life when circumstances are easy or when things ‘fall into place’. We talk about God ‘opening doors’ and ’shutting others’. Well, sometimes I think we need to discover what God wants us to do, which isn’t always an simple thing, and then go out and kick down a few of those closed doors.

I cringe when I hear people using easy circumstances as God’s stamp of approval. Don’t get me wrong, I believe that sometimes God does give us an easy passage to accomplish his purposes but if we expect that to always be the case I think we’ll be dissapointed more often than not. I do believe, and it’s been my experience, that God will sometimes open a way that previously seemed permanently shut and we need to be sensitive to that and walk through when it’s right but not just assume that if we do the right thing that life will simply fit neatly together like a jigsaw puzzle.

Of course taking the opposite view, that following the right path will always be difficult and that taking the easy way is always wrong is equally flawed.

Beware of open doors

In the end, I believe that stopping at closed doors and walking through open ones isn’t always a recipe for right living. We need to be wary of who’s hand is on those open doors.

What’s your experience been? Have you had to struggle to find the way through? Have you had to kick down a few closed doors along the way? Have you walked through an open door only to find that it’s produced more problems than it has solved? Have you also experienced those times when God has very clearly guided you through an open door?