A Simple List of What to Do with Open and Closed Doors

At the beginning of October, my husband Kevin and I traveled to Santa Fe to spend time with his side of the family. We spent one morning at the Georgia O'Keeffe Art Museum, an American Modernist painter who lived nearly 100 years, dying in 1986. 700 pieces of her work were displayed in nine galleries, including an incredible variety of O’Keeffe’s paintings, drawings, pastels, and watercolors from each decade of her life. Considered one of the most influential and innovative artists of the 20th century, O’Keeffe was the first woman to have her own exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

One piece that caught my eye, not only because of its deceiving simplicity, but also because of the title -- "My Last Door."

When something caught O'Keefe's eye, she tended to dwell on it, painting it again and again from different angles, using different colors and paints. I am not sure where this particular painting fell in her obsession, but this door appeared in twenty of her paintings, a door located in the courtyard of a tumbledown farmstead in Abiquiú, a place she would eventually purchase.

Here is a different style of painting featuring the door.

"I'm always trying to paint that door," she said. "I never quite get it....I must continually go on with that door."

Do you continually go on about doors?

Open doors? Shut doors? Are you in the process of trying to figure out which door to walk through?

I often find myself there. And when I do, I find myself obsessing about doors.

Should I say yes to this invitation? If I open this door, what other doors will need to be shut? Is it an opportunity or is it a diversion? What if I go down this road and I find out I can't open the door, that it is closed? Is it worth my time and energy? Why do I find myself in front of a particular door again and again?

This may seem like an odd transition, but I find this section in Scripture helpful when it comes to doors. In Acts 16:6-10, Paul and Silas are traveling and preaching. They try to go to Asia, but feel God says no. They make it to the border of Mysia and try to go to Bithynia, but again they get a no. So they go to Troas instead. During the night Paul has a vision from a man in Macedonia begging them to come so they prepare to leave for that country.

I always figured Paul and his friends had a direct line to God and would know all about open and shut doors without all that wasted time and effort. Instead, I see they are much like me--much like us--heading out and trying something to see where it will lead. As they go, they discover if it is an open or shut door.

As they go. On the way. Moving and listening.

It's a good way to look at doors. Which leads me to this simple list about doors.

1.  If you are sensing it is time for a change, begin moving, even if you aren't sure where it will lead.

2. Keep trying different doors.

3. When you come to a closed door, take time to listen and then obey whatever God tells you.

4. Begin again, trying another door.

I am in a season of trying some doors in regard to my writing. I am not sure if I will end up with a closed door, but I am turning the knobs. How about you? What doors are you trying?

While in Santa Fe, I took some other pics of doors. My sister-in-law confessed that on a recent vacation, she took pics of door knobs. I think both are worthy of contemplation.

Take a moment and tell me about the doors you are wanting to open. Or close.

Some of the info for this blog was found at https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/jul/01/georgia-okeeffe-tate-modern-exhibition-wild-beauty

As a reminder, I have this incredible download of desert photos with quotes about hope, that you can access here. 

Since it is breast cancer awareness month, it would be a great time to order my book, Under a Desert Sky, to give to a friend.