When the door won't open ...

?After high school I moved to Miami, Florida. Now that my friend was the definition of culture shock. I went from Killeen, Texas a town that at the time had a population of 30,000 to Miami, Florida one of the fastest paced cities in the entire world. Before then I had been to the lake…but never to a beach…at least not beaches like those you’ll find in Miami!

I didn’t want to be there but once I wrapped my head around the fact that Miami was where I was going to be I realized that I had to get a job. When I set out to find one I decided that I wanted to work in a mall and that city had a lot of nice ones. 

With that said I started filling out applications and finally found one at a small restaurant called Filet Mignon where we served the best Philly Cheese Steaks in all of Miami. With a crew of young college students, this place also became synonymous with laughter, fun and just an out and out good time.

Two of the guys that made it so much fun were Ali and Bill. Ali was the epitome of cool born and raised in Brooklyn with the thick East Coast accent and hip ways to match. Bill on the other hand was country through and through and through again having grown up in a small coal mining town in West Virginia. When we put those two together and gave them a nudge to get on one another’s nerves, it made the workday seem so much less like work. 

I remember one Saturday night Bill came flying toward the back, but Ali stood on the other side holding the door closed. Bill kept pulling to get in and Ali kept pulling to keep him out. I can still hear Ali’s voice saying, “hold on B; hold on B”. “Let me in Ali”, Bill screamed back at him. “B hold on man” Ali said. 

Back and forth they went for about a 20 seconds or so before Ali said…”Alright B…it’s yours.” Ali let go, Bill walked in, walked a few paces and then…boom! You see Ali was mopping the floor and that was his reason for trying to keep Bill from coming in. But Bill kept insisting so Ali let him in…and once he let him in Bill fell flat on his face. As Bill sat there humiliated to the max Ali looked his way and said, “I was trying to help you out”…

***

There are a lot of times in our lives when God is trying to close a door. God is on the other side fighting to close a door that you and I continue to try to walk through. He’s on one side pulling to keep it closed while we are on the other side, doing everything we can to pull it open.  

We keep pulling on the door and God says, “Hold on”. We pull a little more and God says…”Hold on”…we scream, “Let me in”…and keep pulling. Then God finally says…alright…it’s yours, and we end up falling flat on our face. 

Friend if God is on the other side working to keep a door closed, don’t fight and continue trying to open it. If God is trying to keep it closed know that there is something on the other side that He is trying to protect you from.

It may be a door that you really want to walk through but God keeps it closed. Walk away, sit on the steps, think about it for a minute. Before you become angry and frustrated, understand that if He’s working that hard to keep that door closed…

He’s really trying to help you out…