Hell's Hallway

 Followers of Jesus have almost made a cliche of the saying, "When the Lord closes one door, He opens another" I believe that is so, but the timing of that opening is in His hands, as well as the shape of the door and where it leads to. In the meantime, it's our part to "wait in the hallway." Someone said that "when one door closes and no other door opens, it's hell in the hallway." The hallway of waiting can truly be an agony for those who seem trapped there. How we handle the hallway determines everything.

I heard a singer named Ricardo Sanchez tell the story of a severe spinal injury suffered by his son. He learned of it just as he deplaned at the airport. When his wife told him that the medical staff said that they needed to prepare for the worst, that the boy was not likely to survive, Sanchez sank to his knees before God. Right there in the airport. All those passing by saw the strange sight of a man literally on his face before God. He took no notice. He simply prayed. 

The Doctors said the injury to his son was of the same type that had paralyzed the actor Christopher Reeve. He had no outward reason for hope, but he, like Abraham, dared to "against all hope, believed." He could do so because in the midst of outward hopelessness, he heard the whisper of His voice saying, "It's not over." For 4 hours he remained where he was, praying, as his son was taken into surgery. In the 5th hour, his wife called him, telling him that the surgical team could not account for why they had been able to repair the damage, but they had. With every voice screaming, "It's over," the still, small voice of Christ whispered to his heart, "It's not over." 

What happened with Sanchez's son is not a guarantee that He will move in the same way for us when we come to hell's hallway. But we are guaranteed that the fullness of His risen life will be poured out upon us there if we'll receive it. The door we want may not be the door He opens, but it will be His door and His way. He will, as promised, bring eternal good for us and great glory for Himself if we will go through it.

Sanchez said that "in the hallway we always cry out 'Why?' Then he made the picture of the letter Y with his hands. He said the crook of that letter formed a valley, the valley in which we find ourselves. If we continue to demand to know why, we remain in that valley, that hallway, trapped. Then he moved his hands to demonstrate that if we extend our hands upward, in wholehearted worship, that even in the hallway we will come to know what it is to be lifted out of the pit of miry clay. Even the darkest of pits and most paralyzing clay. 

All of us in the journey will come to a hallway with seemingly no way out. Will we insist on asking "why?" or will we worship? We can worship even in hell's hallway. The next door will always be found if we will dare to look up....unto Him.

Blessings,
Pastor O