Close Out? I Don't Think So

The Rule: Change course if doors are closing on you.

The waves today were brutal. It took me two attempts to even paddle out in the lineup. By the time I finally made it, my arms were sore, my back was tighter than elevator cables, and my head pulsated from the strain of pushing through the whitewater. So there was greater risk in catching a wave. You better catch a good wave or you will get have to fight all that whitewater resistance again.

1 hour after several attempts of catching waves, and false starts into the waves and hesitancy, the first decent looking wave was coming my way. As I looked at the wave again, it changed and started to look like a long wall of blue and grey about to swallow me up. No hope for survival. Then the unusual thought occurred to me, "What the heck, take it and see what happens." I paddled feverishly into the madness, and I caught it and rode it the face for a couple seconds before the wave died on me. I was in a state of glee, for I disregarded a rule of mine: change course if the doors are closing on you.

The signs were saying, this wave can't be ridden , but I said to hell with that, I'm a free man and I'm going for it, and I rode it.

In my previous blog I mentioned about when does an artist stop? Usually many artists stop when they think the doors on their creative piece is coming to a close, but that perception could be as deceiving as the wave that I just rode.

There is a brick wall that every artist, every athlete, every entrepreneur, every musician, everybody faces when pursuing an endeavor. This wall is what separates the dreamers from the doers, the recreational enthusiasts from the professionals. This wall basically defines how badly do you want what you are after.

If you can't go over that wall, than you more than likely shouldn't be on the other side. You have no right and you have not earned it.

So the optimistic side of things is that just because there is a wall doesn't mean God is closing doors, he may very well want you to push through it so you can see how strong you can be, how determined you can be, how much authority and power in the name of Jesus you have. Come now, what makes you think your dreams are unattainable when you have God's word, you have his blood all over you, you have the Holy Spirit alongside you, and on top of that all, you have angles watching your back? That doesn't sound like a weakling who can't plow through walls. That doesn't sound like a writer who gives up just because he faces an insurmountable obstacles found in writing his book, play, script or an article.

Walls sometimes makes us compromise our standards. We fall short of excellence because the going is getting tougher and meaner and harder. The soul is in anguish and it needs rest, but the wall is too think and too high so we give up. We stick to the smaller dreams. We may get past one wall only to find a bigger one behind it, and by the grace of God and all the energy in your body, we get past that one and then an even larger one towers behind that one. Give up the souls say, there's no way. But that is not true.

15 Minutes of excruciating, frustrating paddling, I found myself exactly where I started, on the beach water a my waist. I was standing up right near the shore. So I clenched my teeth, jumped past the next whitewater landing prone on my board and I paddled back out, even though I failed miserably before. I was tired, but I went for it and I made it out.

So what in your life is a wall? Is it a relationship that is crumbling at your feet, a book you are writing that is failing to inspire you, are you looking for a job in an economic recession? Maybe, it's not over, but it is something as simple as gritting your teeth and pushing again through those walls.

A closed out wave doesn't mean anything.