In the Hallway

One of the best pieces of advice I recently received was, "when God closes a door, praise Him in the hallway." 

As we go through life, there will be many closed doors that are actually directing us toward Him. They don't feel like it and we often get frustrated that the direction we wanted to go gets turned around. It often is not going to make sense on a practical level, and we will experience that pain of uncertainty, doubts, agony.

That's when we have to praise Him in the hallway. Hallways are long, sometimes dark, leading somewhere we are not sure, but we can praise Him there. We can keep knocking on doors and searching for answers. The point is not to give up and not to stop in front of the closed door and get stuck there.

There is really only one door that is important to go through and that is the narrow gate. There is not only one way, one door, one path that leads to the gate. The thing is there are many avenues, which lead up to the gate. Those avenues serve to keep us "little" so that we can fit through the narrowness, to shed all the weights that keep us down in this life so that when we get up to the entrance we are free from anything of this earth.

Don't let anything stop you from striving. The hallway may not be a comfortable place to be, but it is purifying. A closed door usually means waiting. Well, Purgatory is a "waiting;" maybe having to endure that agony in this life will perfect your soul for the next. Whatever the reason may be, don't waste the opportunity of "now" to use all to increase your burning desire for Him alone.