Last week, I posted about trusting in God to guide your future. Part of trusting in God’s plan is realizing that when one opportunity falls through, we must realize that God just so happens to have something else in store for us. While we may not understand exactly what path He leads us on, we must trust that when one door closes, He will open another door for us to walk through. While we wait for that next door to open, we should praise Him in the hallway. God knows His plan for us more than we ever will.
Last November, I applied to be a Co-Director for the Missions Emphasis Week Steering Committee. Here at UMHB, Missions Emphasis Week (MEW) is an annual event where for a week, we invite missionaries from across the state of Texas, the country, and even some from abroad. During MEW, we have tables set up where they can interact with students and the Steering Committee places them in classrooms so they can provide students with missions opportunities.
Beyond that, we also organize seminars such as encountering other faiths, helping the homeless, or encountering those who practice voodoo. We even organize special events such as a global prayer event or a fashion runway, where female volunteers wear clothes from across the globe, and someone will describe what women go through in those countries.
This is a week I always look forward to, as it always gives me such great joy to see God move through the hearts of students on campus as they discern the call to go to places like India, China, Brazil, or right across town to work at the Helping Hands ministry. For the past two years, I had served on the Steering Committee and so I decided I wanted to help lead the Committee as a Co-Director. This is something I had been wanting to do since I first joined the committee, and I thought that this would be the right time to apply.
I filled out the application, the interview went well, and a couple of weeks later, my awesome roommate, Greggory Miller, gave me a call. He was one of the Co-Directors who interviewed the applicants for next year. In the call, he told me that I didn’t get it, but he encouraged me to remember that not getting it only means that God has something even greater in store for my life.
I have applied for many things in the past, to which I was not accepted for. Most of the time, it did not take me long to get over it and forget about it. This time, however, I felt that I had never applied for something that I wanted so much, so it took me longer to get over being disappointed, about 40 minutes. Compared to other things to which I got over within a few minutes, this seemed like quite a while to get over it. I felt that I really wanted it, but then I realized, perhaps that’s not what God wanted. He made me realize that that door was not one I was supposed to enter, and I’m so grateful that He did.
The outgoing Co-Directors chose awesome, outstanding men and women of God to lead next year’s MEW. I am beyond excited for them, and cannot wait to serve alongside them as I have been chosen to be on the committee for next year.
I’m glad I wasn’t chosen, because I truly feel that the four that were are better for this leadership role. Almost immediately after I got over not being chosen, I felt God tell me, “Now you can apply to be Cru-Leader!” Since my Welcome Week (2012) freshman year, I have desired to be a Cru-Leader (CL) at some point. Basically CLs mentor and lead a group of incoming freshman during Welcome Week (the week before the semester starts that allows them to become acquainted with college life at UMHB) and we get to help teach their freshman seminar course.
What gave me the desire for this was my own Welcome Week experience. My first night on campus, there was an event called the Quad Party which had large inflatable obstacle courses, mechanical bull riding, popcorn, etc. I wanted to go on one obstacle course, but not knowing anybody, I was afraid to ask anyone. Then, my CL, Samantha Garza, came up to me and asked if I wanted to go on the obstacle course with her. At the time she had a brace on her foot and I asked if she truly wanted to do that with a banged up foot. She said she absolutely would.
Samantha became the first friend I made on campus and she would later mentor and pray with me throughout the week and first semester, to which I’ll always be grateful.
With those memories in mind, I felt God nudging me that it was time for me to step up and apply to mentor freshmen and become someone’s “first friend,” just as Samantha had been for me. After applying and doing the interview process in February, I received a text congratulating me for getting the CL position for next year. I was overjoyed and I am still beyond excited and cannot wait to pour into the lives of new college students next semester. Had I received the Co-Director position, I would not have had time for this wonderful opportunity.
I share this story because I truly believe that when God closes one door, he will eventually open another for you to enter. In the present, we may not understand why something doesn’t work out the way it does. We may think we understand what would be best and we may try to tell God, “I would be doing this for you.” However, we should never try put God into a box like that. He always knows what is best for us more than we will ever be able to understand.
And while we wait for a door to open so we can enter, we need to learn to praise Him in the hallway. This example was not the only time God closed a door for me, but time and time again, I decided to give Him every want and desire I had and trust that He knows what is best for me. Given this truth, I have learned to praise Him for closing any door, because it just means that I am supposed to serve Him and others in some other capacity.
Jeremiah 29:11 from The Message says, “I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.”
This shows me that God knows exactly what He is doing and what His plans for us are. While we may not understand and grasp it, He has plans for every single one of us. Plans to take care of us. Plans not to abandon us. Plans to give us futures to hope for. So when one door closes, that just means that He will open another door for us to enter. This is something we can hope in, because God our Father has not, and will never leave us. He will always guide us to a future we can hope for.
So when He closes a door, dance and praise Him in the hallway, because soon He will open another door for you to enter!
The Message. Bible Gateway. Web. 16 Mar. 2015.
I’m Letting Go by Francesca Battistelli
I Will Follow by Chris Tomlin
More Than Conquerors 