Closing and Opening

When I started writing JourneyNotes back in 2008, I was in what would prove to be my last pastorate before retiring.  The blog was back then a means of providing another means of being in touch with those who were listening to me from the pews on Sunday morning.  Of course, that was then, and this is now.  Number one was back then and number just over nineteen hundred was written a few days ago.  And those who read are no longer pew bound by me on Sunday morning.  And while some who read now are folks from the past, many are strangers who bless me with a few minutes of reading. 

 

As is always the case when we start out with something new, I had no idea how the whole ministry would unfold into my future.  With a meager start of just five or so posts a month, it would have been impossible to conceive of this writing ministry being a daily ministry.  And although in my heart I have always thought of myself as a preacher, I know the preaching part of ministry is not an open door for me at this juncture of my life. 

 

God really does close and open doors of opportunity for us.  Some of the doors which are closed, we fight tooth and nail to keep open.  They are changes we do not want.  They are changes which are not according to our understanding of the plan which we have laid out.  And, thus, some of the doors God opens are hard for us to see because we are not looking.  We are too busy hanging on to what is behind us.  We can all see how this has worked in our lives as we look back.  It is in the looking at the present and the future where we struggle.  It is often hard to do the work of faith which is waiting, letting God's future unfold before us, and then tenaciously grabbing hold.