When There's Nowhere to Go But Up

I didn't really have to be at the airport on New Year's Eve since I wasn't traveling anywhere, but here I was standing in an elevator, going nowhere.

That was when I wondered why I thought this was a good idea. 

It all started when I decided to enroll in the security pre-check program offered by TSA, hoping to make my travel plans for 2017 a little less stressful.

I filled out the online application and searched the calendar to schedule the required in-person appointment. 

I was pleasantly surprised when a window popped up with the first available slot for the very next day, which was New Year’s Eve, but I would have to go to the airport. 

I live close to the Orlando airport and although it's a busy place with challenging parking, I thought I could handle it.

So bright and early on New Year’s Eve morning, passport in hand, I headed out for my appointment at the TSA office.

I thought things were going splendidly as I navigated traffic and managed to nab a parking space on the second level of a full 6-story parking garage.

I headed to the ticketing terminal, where the directions I was emailed said the TSA office was located on the third floor.

I got into the first elevator I spotted, along with another couple and their luggage, and I hit the button for the third floor. 

It took a few minutes before we noticed we weren’t going anywhere. The button for the third floor wasn't even lit up.

I hit the button to re-open the door and nothing happened. That was when I started to panic a little until the nice man from Ohio told me he was pretty sure I’d hit the door-close button instead of the door-open button.

{There's nothing like an elevator experience to help strangers become friends.}

We all breathed a sigh of relief when the doors opened. The Ohio couple and I then moved onto the next elevator and headed to the second floor, where a load of people and their baggage joined us.

Then the elevator took us right back down to the first floor. We hit the button again for the third floor and nothing happened.

Baffled, the couple from Ohio and I looked at each other. Were we in some sort of twilight zone and hadn’t realized it? 

Once again, we got out and headed to a third elevator when we finally noticed the signs.

The first two elevators had sheets of notebook paper taped to the doors saying neither of them would access the third floor. 

Of course when the doors were open, the paper disappeared.

I guess I’d walked into the open elevators and never saw the signs that were only visible when the doors were closed.

Apparently just one elevator could take us where we wanted to go. 

And it took three tries to get there.

It reminded me of the times in my life when doors inexplicably open and close, delays unfold, and confusing directions don't quite get me where I want to go.

There was the year after college when I took a job I didn't like just to get my foot in the door. When opportunities failed to emerge, I wondered why I had to stay at that unchallenging job much longer than I wanted to before I could shut the door on that season and move on.

I recall the year I was so excited to plan a new house, shrugging off my builder's advice on what to consider for resale value, so sure it would be my forever-home. But just a few years later I sold the house and reluctantly locked the door for the last time, not entirely certain where I'd live next.

I can imagine you too have probably had doors unexpectedly close or stay tightly locked, no matter how hard you pounded your fists on them or tried to jiggle the handle.

But sometimes a door is cracked and we get a glimpse of what's ahead. Sometimes it takes more than one try to get where we're going. And sometimes out of the blue, a door miraculously reopens that long ago was closed.

Maybe when the way ahead confuses us or the crowds and uncertainty overwhelm us, up is the only way forward. 

That's when we raise our desires, hopes, petitions and even the questions, up to God.

And maybe it’s the doors that catch our fingers in them as we try to keep them from closing -- the doors that we try to pry open but can't, that bring us what we didn't know we needed. 

That's when we realize that only God can open the doors.

We might think we have the talent, the confidence, the skills to open all the doors we want to walk through, but really it's up to God. 

So here in the fresh new days of this year, I have to think there are doors of hope yet to be opened for all of us. 

It might not be time for it to fully swing open yet but maybe there's a little grate in the gate, giving us a glimpse of days that await, flowering with new adventures and friendships, and a space to breathe, rest and savor life’s pleasures.

{I'm wondering if you can see it too?}

I’m really not quite sure how I managed to find the TSA office. 

On the third floor I finally got out of the elevator and randomly headed left, even though both directions held what looked like miles of airline check-in desks. 

I rounded a corner and there miraculously in front of me was the landmark banking center sign I was looking for with the TSA office across from it.

I got my fingerprints scanned, answered a few questions and paid the fee. 

The agent told me I’d be approved in a few weeks and receive my traveler number.

He wished me happy future travels.

I retraced my steps back to the elevators and out to the parking garage. 

I looked at the garage elevators but I knew I was parked just a few flights up from the ground floor.

So I opted to take the stairs. 

A little note on the photos: all the doors are in St. Augustine, Florida.

I'm having coffee with my friends at Holley Gerth's place at Coffee for your Heart. Click the image to join me there to read posts from my blogging friends.