A couple of weeks ago, I was visiting my grandfather at his assisted living complex. Before getting to the main doors, you walk through one of two openings that bring you to a covered two story entryway. The entryway is extra bright because the second story of the entryway has a few windows that let in lots of natural light.
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| view of one of the entryway openings from outside the building |
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| view from the inside of the entryway looking out |
On that particular day, as I walked into the covered entryway, I heard very loud chirping. Looking up, I saw a panicked little bird that kept flying up against a closed window trying to get back out to the clear blue sky. Clearly, this poor bird was very distressed. Multiple times it flew up and around only to come back to rest on the sill of the window. The bird thought it was trapped! In reality, all the bird had to do was fly down just a few feet where the two large openings would give it the freedom it sought.
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| Poor bird on the windowsill longing for outside! |
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| How close it was to actual freedom! |
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I wish I could have found a way to lead that little bird out of its self inflicted prison!
The good news...I returned later that day to bring my grandfather his pills and the bird was gone.
Hopefully it didn't take it too long to figure out how to escape! |
What an amazing visual example to something that has happened over and over again in my life! How many times have I "banged my head" emotionally against the closed window of circumstances in my life? How many times have I been so caught up in my feelings of being trapped in a particular struggle or situation and unable to figure it out myself? How many times have I struggled unnecessarily for longer than I needed to because I kept trying to get through that closed window when God had a perfectly good doorway for me to go through?
The answer is way too many times!
If you find yourself completely stuck in an area of your life right now and feel like you're trapped, give yourself an emotional time out and take a moment to pray. You never know, God might have a totally different doorway for you to walk through....
