Looking for the open door

Have you ever been locked in a room and couldn't find the door to take you outside the confinement? You possibly bang on the walls and try the same lock over and over. The lock doesn't budge. Do you then stop attempting to leave the room and sit down on the floor waiting for someone to rescue you, or do you try a window, another opening, or even try to yell loudly? Do you keep on, or do you give up and choose to stay where you are?

This scenario can fit any one of us. In fact, I believe that everyone has, at one time, experienced an interval where you think you're locked-in wherever you are. Our career may be on hold and we feel like we're going nowhere. We may be bored with what we've chosen to do with our lives. What we've attempted has gone awry. We feel stuck in the middle of nowhere, spinning our wheels. Do we give up when we feel that what we've desired to accomplish hasn't happened? We knew that God had a plan for our lives, and a particular vocation for us -- and we thought we were following His guidance. The road toward fulfillment of our goal had gone without a hitch, until now.

Perhaps, we weren't accepted into the school of our choice, and depression and hopelessness became our daily companion. Jane, a friend, had wanted to become a Psychological counselor for many years and re-entered college after her children were gone. She was on top of the world, she thought. However, God or her higher power, was pointing her in another direction. Although she acquired all the undergraduate requirements, the Master's Program did not work out for her. Jane was devastated. What would she do? This was her lifetime dream. Jane even had a spot picked out for her future office.

After mulling her situation around within her mind, Jane refused to give up. After researching numerous other options, she acquired her master's degree in another field, one that fit her life and interests much better. Jane was extremely happy with her eventual choice. She could have refused to look for other doors to open, and wallowed in desperation, but rather, she tried another door--one of which she was better suited. She had put her all into accomplishing her goal of becoming a counselor but Jane was a believer -- familiar with the saying that, "When God closes a door, he opens a window."

Inventor, Alexander Graham Bell went even farther when he said "When one door closes another one opens, but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the one which is open for us."

Just when we think we're on the right path, we can hit a fork in that road and be forced to take another direction--one in which we're unprepared. Nevertheless, we can't afford to stare too long at that closed door or hang on to what's no more, even though we may have poured our heart into what was behind it. We can't afford to continue longing -- for that door that will never open again.

Maybe we'd been placed in situations leading toward another vocation, or we'd gotten settled into a profession for which we felt we were suited. Our comfort was assured and we knew we were set in our career, home life and within our circle of friends -- then bad luck appeared and change was upon us again. It seems that when we become too comfortable, we are shown that life continues to have ups and downs. What then, must we do?

Although Covid-19 seems to be a completely negative happening, we must keep looking for the new doors that will open because of it. Do we fight against the changes or adopt -- knowing that we may be forced into a new way of life? "Nobody can live in two places at once. We can either move forward, or stay on the same page and never discover how our story ends" (iron mountain daily news.com).