Leave the Door Open: How to Handle Disappointments

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So, there’s this desire that I felt like God gave me and I’ve been praying about it. One of my prayers…has been “Lord, you can prove me wrong. If this desire didn’t come from you and it was just my own imagination…I’m willing to be proven wrong.” A few days ago something happened that was kind of disappointing. It didn’t line up with how I thought the situation would pan out…but like my prayer said, I was willing to be proven wrong. So, I figured well….this is God proving me wrong…end of discussion. Let it go…close the door. 

During my meditation the next morning, I was sitting in silence, just trying to reverence God and out of the blue my mind goes “Leave the door opeeeeen.” 

Now INSTANTLY, I’m ashamed. I’m like, "Lord forgive me. I don’t know where that came from…I ain heard that song in a minute….my bad, Jesus." 

….but then I couldn’t let that one line go. So, I figured…I don’t know…maybe God’s tryna tell me something. 

Earlier that morning, I’d been thinking about how to handle disappointments…and why disappointments can hurt so deeply. I realized disappointments are actually a type of grief that result from deaths to how we thought the plan should’ve gone. Nonetheless, death to our perception isn’t death to God’s plan. As debilitating as disappointments can be, our disappointments don’t deny the all-knowing, power, and perfection of God. So, if He said it was gonna happen….then time will show you exactly what he said…exactly how he said it (…and not necessarily how you heard it…but that’s a lesson for another day.) 

Sooooo…after I’m sitting with this new revelation about disappointment, my next question was…wellll….how do I deal with THIS disappointment? 

 ….and that’s when I heard “Leave the door open!” 

 It was as if God was telling me…in a way that I would understand…that in some circumstances God uses our disappointments to close the doors of opportunities and situations that we should avoid. Other times He uses disappointments to change our focus for the time being. In that moment, God was encouraging me to not doubt that I heard him or doubt that my desire was from Him. He was leading me to change my focus…but leave the door open. 

That sounded simple enough, but, as much as I think Silk Sonic is incredibly talented, I had to find a scriptural reference…and I did. 

In Luke 5 we meet up with some of Jesus’ future disciples after they’d unsuccessfully been fishing all night. While they’re “closing the door,” Jesus diverts their attention and asks to use their boat to preach to a crowd. They let Jesus use the boat and once He’s done…Jesus tells Peter to push the boat out a little deeper to catch some fish. Now, Peter is an expert fisherman…they’d been working hard all night and with the resources they had, it made no sense to go deeper to catch the fish. They’d already "closed the door” and there was no indication that "opening the door"…throwing out their net again…would bring about a different result. There was no indication other than the fact that Jesus said so. Well, Peter "opens the door"…throws out the net again and catches sooo many fish. 

Here, Peter’s disappointment is the result of the death to how he thought he should be catching fish. Jesus uses disappointment as a means to help Him deliver His message to the crowd. If Peter caught the fish when He was trying, Jesus wouldn’t have had a boat. Without Peter’s boat, Jesus wouldn’t have been able to amplify His voice so that the crowd could hear Him. Jesus changes Peter’s focus for the time being to execute His will, but before they leave…Jesus blesses Peter in a way that re-opens the door of something that he’d already given up on. 

We can learn from this scenario that every disappointment doesn’t indicate that you heard God incorrectly…or that you weren’t doing something “good”….or that it isn’t God’s will to bless you in that particular area… 

Sometimes, disappointments are there to just divert our attention for the ultimate Glory of God. 

Now, the next question is how do we know when to close the door and when to leave the door open? 

The simple answer is ask the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit leads us into all truth…so Holy Spirit is really the only one that can help us with that one. Like Peter says to Jesus in Luke 5:4 “If you say so, I’ll let the nets down again”…Peter only tried again after Jesus TOLD him to do so. His disappointments closed that door, but God’s word led him to opening it again. This shows us yet again the importance of listening for God’s direction. 

Sometimes you need to change directions. 

Sometimes you need to close the door. 

Sometimes you need to leave the door open… 

Knowing when to do that is wisdom that comes from the Holy Spirit. He’ll let you know! 

…and Jesus told us that His sheep hear His voice…and if I trust that, then I have to trust that He’ll speak in a way that I’ll be able to hear Him….even if that means using Silk Sonic. 

So, how am I handling disappointments from now on? 

I’m glad you asked. 

I’m gonna take a moment to feel what I feel…but I’m gonna keep listening for God’s leading. I’m gonna do the next thing He tells me to do. Whether that’s to forget about the nets…or if that’s to push the boat out deeper and let the net out again. Disappointment may come, but God's plan doesn’t change…and that means His promises are still yes and amen…which means His grace is still sufficient to help us WISELY handle all of our disappointments.