Open Windows

But what about "open windows?" Christian jargon meaning that in the midst of some dilemma, an oppourtunity appeared which indicated to the person involved that God intended to give an answer to some prayer question by making one option easier or more viable than the other. God "opened the window" for us to go to China to be missionaries. God opened the window for me to go to college by providing me with financial aid... This gets used a lot, too. This is another variation of a sign. In the midst of a dilema, the opening of a possibility of one option is seen as a sign that God desires the person to go in that direction.

I've put trust in these kinds of signs before, but if my former conclusion on signs is correct, then how consistently can we just go the way of the open window? Say you apply to two colleges and one offers you a healthy financial aid package and one doesn't. You'd think that God wanted you to go to the one because he provided you the resources you needed to go that route. But, isn't it possible that God could also be testing your faith, and that actually, he desires you to go to the college with less financial aid because in the experience of stepping out in faith (without the financial aid), you'd actually be learning to trust and rely on God more than if you had it handed to you? Or maybe, God wants you to go the more difficult route because you'll find greater satisfaction from having gone through a closed window, against the odds, stepping out in faith, and accomplishing the impossible.

Sometimes, people go through windows that God opened, only to realize that the open window was the wrong window. Some ministers have open windows all the way through college and seminary and then end up spilling out and shipwrecking their career in an abuse scandal.

A window opening might be the hand of God, but I don't think its necesserilly a hand pointing you in an obvious direction.