When God Closes a Door, He Opens a Window

I hate this saying.  I also hate when people say, "Everything happens for a reason."

While reading "The Social Animal," David Brooks mentions research that people from the US and also more educated are more likely to believe to control their own destiny and life. He has a metaphor about clocks and clouds (from Jonah Lehrer, author of "How We Decide").

"Clocks are neat, orderly systems that can be defined and evaluate using reductive methodologies.  You can take apart a clock, measure the pieces, and see how they fit together. Clouds are irregular, dynamic, and idiosyncratic.  It's hard to study a cloud because they change from second to second.  They can best be described through narrative, not numbers.

I don't want to believe this is right,  but Richard Nesbitt said that "What nature hath joined together, multiple regression cannot put asunder."

He also notes that one of "the great temptations of socety is that it tries to pretend that every phenomenon is a clock which can be evaluated using mechanical tools and regular techniques.

I've been watching Friday Night Lights lately. In one episode Smash loses his scholarship to TMU....

Mom:  Listen I know Whitmore isn't what you dream of.  But honey, when a door closes, God opens a window. He ain't never fumbled the ball, he always gets the touchdown.  That's God's plan."

And that's the key to remember, as much as we want to believe we can study and know and take apart the world, predict the future....in the end God has plans for us and he doesn't ever fumble. Things that seem like the end if the world now are God's way of closing down something that isn't right and opening us up to "better" opportunities.

Although I chose to close a door recently, God has already opened so many more opportunities to fill the void that I felt.