There's nothing worse than showing up hungry to a restaurant and finding out it's closed. I remember driving through Alabama on a Sunday afternoon last year and we were salivating for BBQ, but all the places were closed! The world doesn't functioning properly without BBQ!

The world doesn't function properly when we live closed. Hold your hand in a closed fist. Imagine now, that within your hand are all the things you think are yours. In your hand are all the moments, possessions, attitudes, and relationships that you want to be the boss of. These are the things you and I struggle to give to God. We know we haven't given them back to God because we're still making the decisions without consulting him. You and I often live closed.

Within each day you and I probably open 20-40 different things. We open our eyes, the dresser drawer, the door, the toothpaste, the shampoo, the fridge, the milk, the car, and on and on. Deeply and profoundly woven within these moments of opening is the very planned and purposed will of God. Before the world began, before you were born, Psalm 139 reveals that God prepared you and each of your days on this earth masterfully. The word open to me has come to signify a moment of decision, a moment of opportunity. When we open something we move forward. Do you move forward based on the will of God or on your own desires?

The tension in my life now lies between my closed fist of independence and the open opportunities of God's will. It goes deeper than a closed hand. It is a matter of my closed heart because that inner part of me doesn't always trust, like, or want God's will. When I open my eyes in the morning I don't want it to be because I have a plan but because I've decided to live God's. When I open the door I want to walk out to accomplish God's desires not mine. Each moment of openness brings with it the choice to live within God's perfect will for my life and to follow it with submission. Next time you open anything ask yourself, "how can I follow God's will for my life in this opportunity?"

Jesus says these powerful words in John, "Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." Imagine your hand opening now, willing to loose everything you have, desire, and planned to the life and will of God. May your heart follow. May it open beyond your selfishness to live in submission. Are you willing to set your feet walking with dependence in obedience to God? To submit to his plan and follow every detail with faith and joy? To give whatever you have, to let go of whatever it takes and to truly live in the will of God?

Are you willing to live open?

- Josh