Imagine, if you will, that you are in a room at the end of a long hallway with many doors.  You are very comfortable in your room, and you think you are very happy. It’s full of things that you love and enjoy; a good stereo, a comfortable couch, big T.V., maybe some friends. You feel happy here. 

The door to your room is always open. You see down the hallway that there is another door open at the far end. You constantly think “Oh, I’ll check out that door eventually. It be a good change of pace from my room, but only as long as I can come back to it.” You continue this way, always looking down the hallway, but never actually going to the open door. 

Then one day, you are asked to leave your room. Even though you have improved the room, and enjoy the company of your friends, and the couch, and you’ve done nothing wrong, you have been evicted. You have time to say goodbye, but leaving the room is one of the hardest things you have ever had to do. In the time before you need to leave, you look at brochures for other rooms. You see that these rooms are pretty much the same as the one you were in. Some are maybe nicer, some worse.  You can see yourself in some of these rooms, but you never get any of them, as they are all locked.  As you go on, you realize that there are only a few doors left, including the one that is open. And you have to make a decision. Do you keep trying to open the doors that are closed, or do you go into the one that is open?

This is the position I found myself last June.  After two years of teaching middle and high school band, I was told that my contract was going to be non-renewed.  Not only that, but I had a whole semester to go through before the end of the year. As the semester went on, I became more and more antsy, and all of my free time was spent filling out and submitting job applications, school after school, district after district, even state after state. When I later found out the reason I was not rehired, I was angry. In my mind, it was a reason that would ultimately prove to lead to a growing and improving band program down a road to failure. I felt like I was being replaced for doing a good job.  I applied to well over a hundred band director positions, and only got six interviews. By the middle of June, I was getting desperate. My leads were running out, and I still had no jobs. But I was ignorant of the open door at the end of the hallway.

At the end of the month, I saw a post on Facebook.  It was from Emily Butterfield, the Adventures in Missions Base Leader in Siem Reap, Cambodia.  She wrote something along the lines of “We need more people to come and join us here in Cambodia”.  What I read was “Yo, Nathan. Cambodia is through that open door.  That is where God needs you to be.”  After one more failed interview for a band director job that I knew I would be miserable at, I decided to go for it. 

As soon as I made the decision, I felt a huge weight lifted off of my shoulders. I suddenly realized that I was happy.   While I loved teaching, and loved my students, the job was incredibly stressful and unhealthy. I always felt like I couldn’t take a day off, and everything felt rushed. I couldn’t shut it off.  When I made the decision to go down the path that God had laid before me, the stress was gone.  I slept better. The stabbing pain I would sometimes feel between my shoulder blades had subsided. I ate better and snacked less. I was sad to leave the friends I had made and all of the band students, but for the first time in a long time, I felt happy.             

God always has a plan. We may not see it. We may find it hard or uncomfortable. But He loves us.  He is good. 

“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”

Jeremiah 29:11