A few lines from my favorite lyricist Neil Peart of Rush explains my powerfully optimistic mood:

“Ceiling unlimited
Windows open wide
Look and look again, look again

Feeling unlimited
Eyes on the prize
Changes never end, never end …

Hope is like an ancient river
The time is now again …”

 

Being no stranger to irony, I often quote Peart, an avowed athiest, and yet draw a lot of religious and spiritual conclusions from him.  I woke up at 4 a.m. today (what should have been a sleep-in-Saturday) with this song and a lot on my mind and knew it had to be shared.

I’ve been told by many friends that when God closes a door he opens a window.   I see things a little differently.  God doesn’t necessarily close doors, but he often opens several, sometimes even opening windows, secret portals, and blowing the ceiling clean off the building.  It’s up to you to decide which one you’ll walk through.  As Pastor Clint Brogdon told me recently, when you have a life-altering decision to make, God won’t put a bad choice in front of you.  He’ll often put several good ones in front of you, and you should be able to recognize any bad ones that aren’t His.  If you can discount those and get them out of the way, the good opportunities remain and you can determine which of those is right for you.

It’s always easy to think about greener pastures when we’re safely fenced into our own.  Whether we’re not appreciating where we are or conversely recognizing a bad situation that actually can be improved isn’t the point. Sometimes we hesitate to take that step because we go into what Dr. Seuss calls “The Waiting Place.”  We get comfortable with the devil we know and will put up with all kinds of torture as we sit around waiting for … whatever. Living life this way from the sidelines instead of stepping out of our comfort zone lures us into a false sense of security.  Any footballer knows that one wrong play on the field can still result in you getting knocked out when your back is turned from the action.  Instead, you have to keep your eye on the action and be ready to throw yourself into the game.

Such is the same with life.  You must see the opportunity.  Then you must seize the opportunity.  Then you must do your best to see the opportunity through to the best of your ability.  I think this is what “Ceiling Unlimited” means … clear your visibility so you can see beyond the horizon into the infinite possibilities that lay past it.  From there, once you are committed, reaching the horizion is not even your end goal … its simply your next step. Success is never guaranteed, but I do believe that while God provides minimum protection, He provides maximum support.

Few people would ever call me lazy or living on the sidelines, yet I recently made a major life decision at work after recognizing I’d been in The Waiting Place for too long.  Being perpetually restless and a constant improver, I knew it was time for a change, and I sought to take control of a destiny I felt was being mapped out for me and going in a direction I did not like.  All my life I’ve been blessed with a head full of Big Ideas but haven’t had the confidence to do anything about them or the right audience to help them become a reality for a while.  Having found that drive in 2012, all that is about to change.

No clouds during the day.  No light pollution at night.  Ceiling Unlimited … changes never end, indeed.

These are all themes I expect to explore on this blog as I chart a new course in life with my family, my community, my work, my faith, and my hobbies. I’m really excited to see where this is going to go.