Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Dearest God,

I removed the furniture from the dining room. I put on the sacred music and I danced a goodbye to my beautiful Maine home. I had already written a letter to the house in the guest book I had bought for people to write in when they visited. I loved the privilege of helping to bring it back to life, allowing it to shine its beauty to the neighborhood. I wrote a prayer..."Bless this house, O Lord, this home..."

You make a way to do every hard thing in life. Symbolically, metaphorically, spiritually you point us to a route where we can find our way out, to leave something behind, to let go, to cherish, to celebrate, to move on.

As it is written when a door closes a new entryway is opened. I believe it is your work that makes this possible. Only when we put one foot in front of the other are we enabled to move away to move toward.

A new life is one where we accept the reality of the closed door. We may weep and cry; we may plead and beg, even try to pry the door open. But when the door is closed, it is closed. The only way out is to move toward a new opening.

I imagine it, Lord; I imagine sitting at this closed door for the rest of life. What is the purpose? Daily I can continue to weep but my tears will not cause it to reopen. When you close a door, you close it. There is rhyme and reason to a closed door even if we are not privy to it. We have to trust that door has closed because you have deemed it right to do so.

I think I have been seated at my closed door for a long time. I kept thinking if I would do one more thing, if I would give one more thing, if I would plead one more time, if I would..." Too long, I sat too long. My being seated at that closed door robbed me of opportunities for something better just a little bit beyond my reach; a slight movement and I would have made my way out to a new open door.

Why is it so hard, Lord? Why do we labor needlessly, suffer beyond reason? Why do we hang close to the closed doors in our lives?

A life well-lived is one where our backpacks are always ready. Inside is tucked every item we will need for the journey...trust, hope, faith and, of course, a bottle of living water. It's all that's necessary. A light load makes the pilgrimage easy.

Give me
a pilgrim heart,
O God,
one that beats
in rhythm
with you.
Teach me
to recognize
closed doors
and open entryways.
Inspire me
to leave
closed places
for open spaces.
Teach me
to trust you
always.

Love, Andrea