When One Door Closes, Dig A Tunnel With A Spoon

I’ve lived most of my life believing that I’d know what to do when it came to making big decisions. I believe in God and that He speaks to me, so, if something was right or wrong, I’d just…know. As a child I thought that when I grew up it’d be obvious what I would do for a living, who I should marry, and the same went for all the rest of whatever was supposed to happen after that. I focused on being truly excited when the things I wanted to have happen worked out, and then being graciously disappointed when the things I hoped would happen never did. In most ways I landed peacefully because, as it turns out, there isn’t a lot of friction in life when you’re decidedly happy with the ways things unfold in front of you. It’s like finding the yellow brick road, you just follow follow follow follow.

When Life’s Doors Are Bolted Shut

Like me, you might have made it through a significant part of your life without having to fight for much. There have been hardships along the way, but not the same as painful sacrifice to achieve a better long-term outcome. Most of us have designed a life where the things around us become progressively easier and more convenient. We’re not invested in disrupting a pattern of comfort and ease with anything that creates conflict because we’ve spent our entire lives avoiding “difficult” and championing the blessings.

Then one day, the world changes so significantly that you’re forced to experience things differently than you ever have. You’re called to make modifications that are so substantial that the landscape of your life is no longer familiar. There may be abrupt shifts to your daily routines, change or loss of your most significant relationships, or a forfeiture of security in a career you worked your entire life to refine. It could be that the refuge you once felt in the world around you is no longer there.

Dig A Tunnel With A Spoon

The world began with not one paved road, it’s easy to forget that. We haven’t practiced pursuing outcomes that seem basically impossible, so when faced with that, we’re crippled and distraught. Doors aren’t always going to open in front of you providing a clear passageway to a better outcome, that’s when it’s time to sacrifice comfort and security. It is time to work so hard that you risk looking like a complete fool. It’s time to experience the anguish of not knowing how to change something in your life, quite possibly the most critical piece of who you are. It’s time to alter course even when you know it means you’ll most likely lose everything or risk losing all of what’s familiar to you.

We’re used to a world of safe, comfortable, happy, self-proclaimed blessed and honored, church going, hand raising, microphone hugging, securely employed, vacationing, educated, motivational quote and scripture sharing conformists. Rules can be nice because they provide a clear path where you merrily do what you’re supposed to do but God’s voice is not more intelligible to a person just because they’re following the rules. You are required to practice discernment in all things, even conventions you may have abided by your whole life. There may come a time when you realize you’ve got to forge a way that comes through absolute agony. When you’ve hoped and prayed that there could be another way, something more obvious and comfortable that would do less damage, but it isn’t going to happen. It’s time to start digging that tunnel with a spoon even though you’re at the end of yourself from what the journey has taken out of you to get to this point. It may feel like the end, but it has been done before. You are not alone and there is restoration available to you on the other side.