When God Opens a Window

The message I would like to share with you all today is centered around three main ideas: the Open Window, the Road less Traveled, and the Narrow Gate.

A few years ago, I was approached by my Pastor a the time to share a sermon at church. She asked me to find a scripture that I felt truly spoke to me, and to build my sermon from there. I don’t know very many scriptures by heart, but “When God closes a door, He always opens a window” has really been something that has stuck with me over the past few years of college. I have now discovered that this is not actually a verse from the Bible, although I am sure it is a phrase that you have all heard many times. It is one of those feel good phrases we all use when something doesn’t go our way. When we don’t get that new promotion at work, or a guy never calls you back after an awesome first date, or maybe when your family members aren’t going to be able to come home for the holidays. The obvious issue is that these things we really wanted aren’t going to happen. But there is always a window. Maybe you didn’t get the promotion because God has a bigger and better job waiting at another company. You don’t have to worry about him not calling you back because you have his number and you can call him. And if your family can’t come to see you, maybe you’ll finally get to take that vacation to go to them instead.

This idea led me to a scripture from Matthew. Matthew 7:13-14. 13“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. 14“For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it. It wasn’t always easy to be a Christian. Even Adam and Eve had the opportunity to choose the easy path of eating the fruit, or to take the narrow road and follow God’s will. Christians were persecuted and shunned. Christ was crucified for what he believed in. He knew that he would suffer before the end, and yet he followed the path God laid before him. It was not easy. He faced doubt, discrimination, prejudice, threats, tortured and still he continued on in the name of the Father. Even today Christians all over the world are judged for their beliefs. The gateway to Christianity is not wide and easy traveled. But there are special moments, sometimes only lasting for a few seconds, where you can feel God’s presence in your life, guiding you, holding you, comforting you, and making you whole. No one in the family of God will ever be alone because he is always with you, even if he is not making his presence known.

The third text I want to share today follows a similar theme. It is a poem by Robert Frost that I am sure many of you are familiar with. I will only be sharing the first and last stanza.

“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

………..

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.”

When I was young, I always knew I was going to go to college. It was never demanded of me. I just simply knew I was meant to go, so when it was time, I decided to go a few hours away from home to Heidelberg. Growing up, I was also not raised in a religious family. It was just something we didn’t talk about. But when I got to college, I took a chance and decided to check out the Involvement Fair that was taking place in front of the commons. Next thing I knew, I was coming to church every Sunday, singing in the choir, and a few months later, I was getting baptized. I have always felt led in certain directions throughout my life. I cannot explain exactly what I felt, or how I knew what I was doing. I was just overwhelmed by a sense of rightness. Not all decisions were easy. My road began to narrow when it came to picking a Major. I came to college as a Music Education student. As I went through my classes and student teaching, I discovered that while I was a decent teacher in the making, my heart was not in my work. I knew that I couldn’t go through with being and education major. So, I switched to performance. After a few months of being a performance major, and being told “You can do so much more” I decided that I did not have the drive or the heart to be a performance major either, so I dropped my degree to a Bachelor of Arts with a vocal emphasis. This is where the road gets very narrow. So many people in my life were concerned when I started changing my major, and when I changed it again. Many asked me what I was doing, and I could only answer them honestly. “I don’t know.” But I prayed about it. I turned away from the voices in my ear and turned instead to God and asked him to lead me in the direction of his will. Since changing to a Bachelor of arts, I have been able to spend more time with friends and family, I have been less stressed, I have been able to take the time to make memories and just enjoy my senior year. I also have decided to go to graduate school and earn my Masters of Business Administration. I still don’t have my life planned out, but I know now that whenever I need guidance, I can turn to God and he will always be there.

If I had decided to take the wide road, I could have skipped going to college. I could stayed an education major. I could have stayed safe and sound in America rather than travel to Germany for a summer to live with people I’ve never met. I could have chosen not to explore the pull i felt toward Mississippi and stayed in Ohio rather than move myself across the country to live in poverty. I could have kept doing what made the people in my life happy, and I could have learned to be content. I could have blindly walked in the direction I always said I wanted my life to go. But I did not. I took the narrow road. I took the path less traveled. I ignored the closed door, laced up my shoes and climbed out that open window.

And now here I am, 6 years baptized into the Presbyterian Church, a Bachelors and a Masters degree in on my shelf at home, 9 months into an internship on the Gulf Coast, and doing my best to start a new life as an adult. And as always, God is certainly shutting a door in my life. However…He has already opened many windows as well. I have a house to live in and a job for the next few months while I try to find a full-time placement. What I take away from all of these texts about roads and windows is that life isn’t meant to be one easy path that you follow your entire life. It won’t always be fun times filled with love and laughter. There will be dark times when you have no idea what you are going to do next. But we keep moving forward regardless, by turning to God. By believing in God, we get to have this beautiful gift called faith. Faith is hope with wings, in my personal opinion. When hope is gone, or you’re just having a tough time, faith steps in to take its place, smoothing things over until we can see the light again. I invite you to find windows in your life everyday. It might be something big or something small, but open yourself up to the possibility of change, and find that path less traveled. It’s okay to pray for courage to find and follow the narrow way.  Make peace with someone, forgive past wrongs, love someone who believes or acts differently than you because God loves us. Take a chance and do something different. Be the one to approach a new face and start a conversation. Embrace the time you spend with loved ones. Give up those extra minutes sleeping to make memories with your friends. You might be surprised at the outcome. Choose to be blessed everyday.