I thought I'd share this as I had a rather interesting object lesson for today that I thought everyone would be blessed in hearing about.  Anyhow, I went out today to do some shopping as my cat had succeeded in eating me out of house and home.  (That guy is a four legged vacuum cleaner, sheesh!)  Anyhow, as I was coming back from the store I noticed that the parking lot was full and my parking spot was taken by someone else, which means I'd have to park WAY away from the door, forcing me to walk quite a distance from my car to my apartment door.  While not impossible, it's still a bit bothersome when you have arms full of groceries and supplies.  Well, anyhow, I just shrugged it off and said to myself "Meh, not a big deal.  I'll just go and get the mail and then come back and find me a spot to park."

So I went to get the mail (which I clearly hadn't gotten in some time as the box was full) and then came back to the apartment to find a parking spot out in the boonies again.  However, much to my surprise my parking spot had opened up again and I was able to just slip right in and park in my normal spot.  So where's the object lesson in this story?  Well, consider the way things unfolded.  I came back from doing what I had to do, and found my parking spot occupied by someone else.  In life we have many experiences similar to that where we "come home" only to find that we can't park because something is blocking us.  For example, you can't pay rent this month because there's no money, or you're applying for jobs, but you can't get any because nobody will hire you and the money is running out.

In a situation like that, what do you normally do?  Most people, myself included, wring our hand hands and cry, "Oh no!  Woe is me!  Whatever will I do!?"  Yes, that's human nature and we're all guilty of it.  Yet what did I do when I saw the parking lot full?  I just kept going as I had other things to do, which was to get the mail.  Sure, I could have parked in the boonies, took the long march of death over to my apartment with my heavy load of groceries and then walked over to the mailbox and got the mail.  Instead, I just kept driving, ignoring the currently disadvantageous situation, and got the mail.  When comparing this to life, it shares many similarities to waiting on God.

How so?  Well, how often have we come upon a close door in our lives that we can't get through, and instead of trusting God and just continuing to work, patiently waiting on that door to open, we stand there crying and wringing our hands, shouting, "Woe is me!  Whatever will I do!?" instead of saying to ourselves, "Okay, it must not be time yet.  So thank you, Lord, for this closed door, as it is not yet time.  And when it is time, open this door for me Lord that I may pass through.  And if not this door, then another."  So if you find a closed door in your life, don't freak out or worry or wring your hands in concern.  Understand it's closed for a reason, no matter how much you might want it, and to trust God that, when the time is right, He will open it for you.  Just be patient (I know, it's that dreaded "P" word again!) and trust that it will open when God knows it's the right time.

But what if it never opens?  What then?  Well, the answer is simple.  If the door never opens, praise God that it didn't, as whatever was on the other side would have been worse for you than if you had been given passage through it.  This includes jobs, cars, debts, etc.  The latter is one that's been a hard pill for me to swallow, above and beyond all others.  But if God hasn't opened that door yet, then there's a reason for me to remain in debt, no matter how much I may want to get out of it.  But, I know that, when the time is right God will lift me out of it.  That may be 30 years of painful waiting until then.  But when that moment is right, He will do it.  And should He chose that it will never happen, then so be it, as He has a purpose for every bit of that.  So in the end, just trust, wait, be patient, and pour everything you have into the Lord, and He will bless you and lift you up in HIS time, and not a second before.  And to be honest, that's a good thing as we suck as this life, and get more things wrong than right.