Sometimes a no is just a not now in disguise.
I’ve learned that lesson more than once.
Back in 2013, when we were living in Thomasville, I interviewed for a job. I can’t really explain it other than to say I knew in my spirit that I was going to work there. I felt sure of it.
And then I didn’t get the job.
Well…that’s awkward.
Because what do you do when you believe you’ve heard something from God and then circumstances seem to say the exact opposite? At the time, all I could see was the closed door. What I couldn’t see was that two years later, another opportunity would open at that same place. This time, I got the job.
What I had sensed wasn’t necessarily wrong. My timing was.
More than a decade later, I found myself learning a version of that lesson again. There was a project at work that I really wanted to be part of. I put myself forward for it, hoping I would be chosen, and I wasn’t. It stung, but I accepted the no and kept moving.
Then months later, I was asked to help with that very project. The same project I hadn’t been chosen for before. Once again, I found myself standing on the other side of a disappointment and realizing the opportunity hadn’t necessarily been taken away. It just hadn’t been time yet.
Sometimes a no is just a not now in disguise.
That doesn’t mean every no will eventually become a yes. Sometimes God closes doors that need to stay closed, and I’ve lived long enough to be grateful for some of those too. The hard part is that when we’re standing in front of a closed door, we don’t always know which kind it is.
We know what we want. We know what we think we heard. We know what makes sense from where we’re standing. But we don’t know what God knows about what comes next. And apparently, He remains completely uninterested in providing me with a detailed timeline.
So I’m learning not to treat every disappointment like the end of the story. Sometimes no really does mean no. But sometimes the door opens later. Sometimes the opportunity comes back differently. And sometimes you discover that what you thought God was saying wasn’t wrong at all.
You were just early.
I think that’s why trusting God’s timing requires actual trust. If I already knew which doors would reopen, when they would reopen and exactly what would be waiting on the other side, I wouldn’t need much faith. I’d just need a calendar.
There are still things in my life where I don’t know whether the answer is no or not now. Maybe I won’t know until I can look back at them from somewhere further down the road.
But I’ve been wrong about a closed door before.
More than once.
So maybe I don’t need to decide what every no means while I’m still standing in front of it.
Sometimes a no is just a not now in disguise.
Trust His timing.