Open hearts. Open minds. Open doors.

As one of my favorite taglines, the United Methodist Church gets a thumbs up for creating such a catchy, yet accurate tagline. Of course the purpose of this entry goes beyond the advertisement for the United Methodist Church. It came up during a casual conversation with a friend tonight. This particular friend seems a little down about the next step in life. Naturally, being a pro at that sort of feeling, I felt I could give said friend a bit of advice.

I feel that the most important thing that we can do in any situation is remain open. This is especially true when examining life and trying to figure out what's next in God's plan. Often times we back ourselves so far into a corner, it doesn't seem that we'll ever find our way. Luckily we serve a God that can light even the darkest of paths. But, with that being said, why do we back ourselves into these dark alleys? Why is it that we intentionally seperate ourselves from "others"? For example, church politics, they're big, ugly, and everywhere. But seriously, what sort of purpose do they serve aside from isolating people? Are they REALLY necessary to maintain order in the church? What happened to people just coming together to worship God?

Open hearts:
We should open our hearts to God. This can mean various things, but a few things are general enough to apply to every situation. Opening your heart to God means allowing God to enter in, do some spring cleaning, and make a residence inside of you. After all, that is sort of the point. In order for that to happen, one must be willing to allow such events to happen.

Open  minds:
Once we've allowed God to make a dwelling insde of us, we must keep our minds open. According to the Bible, we as God's children have plans designed for us by God, our Heavenly father. However, unless we remain receptive to following the plan, the rest is pointless. Yes, God's plan isn't always our plan. But, remember from the tv show (and Jeremiah 29:11); father knows best. Speaking from experience, one can fight and run from the plan. But, eventually one gets tired of running. It is much easier to be open in the beginning, rather than facing trials and tribulations that may have been prevented in the beginning.

Open doors:
This last part, provided the first two have fallen into place, is fairly simple. Part of following God's plan is to allow God to close certain doors, only to open new ones. In order for the purpose of these new open doors to be of any use, one must walk through them. With the above rules in mind, cross over anything in your way, so that you may enter into greatness with God.

With the end of this entry, I leave you yet one more thing to ponder. A quote in the form of a question that my anam cara presented to me: "I just want to minister to people. Is that too much to ask?"