Shutting Doors for Something New
It was a night in late August a little over a year ago when I got ready for bed as usual. Turning the air down and sliding between the cool clean sheets, I expected the blissfulness of sleep to blanket my mind in mere minutes. But this night was different. I was restless, tossing and turning for what seemed like hours. Waves of sadness washed over me. What’s wrong with me? When sleep wouldn’t come, I sat straight up in the bed trying to figure it out. I began to recount the day in my head. Nothing unusual happened. Where was this loneliness coming from? Then I recognized the emotions. This was grief. But no one died. Again I went through all the events of that August day.
Ah, and then I knew.
Earlier that morning I retired the website I created years ago on a dare from a friend, Joying in the Journey. As time went on, Joying in the Journey became more than a fun dare. It was the first place I tried my hand at writing. The place where I began to share my life with readers. Many times the pixelated words were dumps of my raw emotions after painful events. My feelings splattered across a page for all to see and read in hopes that some of the words might speak to someone going through a similar situation. I felt it was my calling. And letting it go was painful, more than I could have possibly imagined.
I stopped writing regularly several years ago. Other responsibilities stole my attention. After much prayer I knew it was time to close the book on Joying in the Journey.
Life is full of seasons of letting go. We let go of the single life when we marry. We let go of one job for hopefully a better one. We let go of bad relationships, and we let go when say goodbye to loved ones who pass on. We let go of outdated hairstyles, and sports we love, when our bodies beg us to stop. We let our children go for the first time and the last time. And on and on we (let) go.
Though I think it’s natural to mourn a door shutting, we can take heart in knowing God mourns the hard losses with us, catching every tear we shed. And, He’s constantly at work doing something new even when we can’t see it. You know the saying, when God shuts a door, He opens a window…. But, it’s all in His timing.
Isaiah 43:19 says, “For I am about to do something new. See I have already begun! Do you see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.”
If you’re in that place of closure or sadness, give it a minute. God’s heard your prayer just as He heard mine. A new thing is coming your way as sure as spring follows the winter.