When the Door Closes, Trust the Cornerstone.

Troy Husted

September 27, 2026

God never ceases to amaze me—especially in the way He continues to teach us, place people in our path, and remind us that He is always moving, even when we cannot yet see where He is leading.

I am now down to the final month of this assignment before heading home to spend time with my family in Michigan and then traveling to be with my beautiful bride in the Philippines. Even as the finish line gets closer, I continue working hard to establish standards and systems that I pray will help this company succeed long after I leave.

Seeing new faces coming into management has given me hope that many of the things we have worked hard to put into place will continue forward. But as this week came to an end, God reminded me once again that this assignment was never only about work, processes, standards, or improvement.

Sometimes the greatest assignments God gives us happen outside the workplace.

They happen through people.

They happen through conversations.

They happen when we are willing to slow down long enough to recognize the divine appointments He places in front of us.

Toward the end of this week, while sitting outside on the patio at the hotel, I met an elderly couple named Jim and Helen. They had been delayed from continuing their trip toward the coast because a storm had washed sand across the main road.

We began talking about the storm, life, traveling, and eventually the Philippines.

It reminded me how much life itself can resemble a storm.

Sometimes the road ahead becomes covered.

Sometimes our plans are interrupted.

Sometimes we are forced to stop when all we want to do is keep moving.

But maybe some delays are not really delays at all.

Maybe God sometimes slows us down because there is someone we are supposed to meet along the way.

Around that same time, I met Matt from Maine. Through our conversations, we began discovering similarities in our lives and in the ways God had worked through different seasons and circumstances.

Matt invited me to attend Joy Fellowship with him.

There I heard Pastor Edward share a powerful testimony about his own journey—his battle with cancer, difficulties finding work, returning to school, and the struggles he experienced while trying to provide for his wife and eight children.

He spoke about the frustration of wanting to be the breadwinner while his wife was working and his struggle with not wanting to take away from what she was doing for their family.

He talked about searching for work and having door after door close.

And he spoke about fear.

When his focus remained on fear, fear produced anxiety.

But as he continued walking with the Lord, his perspective began to change.

He began to understand that perhaps God was not simply refusing to open doors.

Perhaps God was closing doors that might have provided comfort, but not growth.

Perhaps the Lord was protecting him from places where he was never supposed to remain while preparing a completely different door that would eventually lead him exactly where he needed to be.

Through the battles, frustration, uncertainty, sickness, and waiting, he learned to trust the Lord.

Then came one of those little details that makes you smile at God's sense of humor.

The company Pastor Edward was eventually hired by...

builds doors.

That stayed with me.

Because throughout Scripture, doors carry such a powerful spiritual meaning.

Jesus said:

“I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.” — John 10:9

And in Revelation 3:8, Jesus says:

“Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it.”

A door can represent opportunity.

A door can represent protection.

A closed door can keep danger from entering.

A closed door can also prevent us from walking somewhere God never intended us to go.

An open door can represent a new beginning, a calling, a relationship, an opportunity to serve, or an entirely new season of life.

Sometimes we pray desperately for God to open a particular door while He already knows what is waiting on the other side.

So He closes it.

And we become frustrated.

We pull on the handle.

We knock harder.

We question why nothing is happening.

We wonder if God has forgotten us.

But perhaps faith sometimes means stepping away from the door we desperately want opened and trusting God enough to walk toward the one He is preparing.

“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” — Proverbs 3:5–6

Afterward, Matt and I found ourselves back on that hotel patio simply talking about the wonders of God.

We shared stories.

We talked about our lives.

And the more we talked, the more we discovered connections between the roads we had traveled and the lessons God had taught us along the way.

Different people.

Different places.

Different circumstances.

Yet so many similar lessons.

Trust.

Surrender.

Waiting.

Closed doors.

New beginnings.

And learning that God's plans are often much larger than what we can see while we are walking through them.

That conversation brought me back to my own journey.

About eight years ago, during one of the most difficult seasons of my life, I remember praying and asking God to become the foundation of my life.

I wanted to stop trying to build everything myself.

I prayed that God would allow me to build my life upon Him and His glory.

Then Cornerstone called me.

I have been with them ever since.

Through those years, God has given me opportunities to travel, meet people, help companies, share experiences, encourage others, and hopefully leave places a little better than I found them.

And once again, I have to smile at God's sense of humor.

I prayed for a foundation.

And He sent me to Cornerstone.

Scripture tells us:

“Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone.” — Ephesians 2:20

A cornerstone was one of the most important stones in a building.

The rest of the structure was aligned from it.

If the cornerstone was out of position, everything built from it would eventually be out of alignment.

And isn't that exactly what happens in our lives?

If Christ is not our Cornerstone, eventually something begins to move out of alignment.

Our priorities.

Our decisions.

Our relationships.

Our marriages.

Our families.

Our careers.

Our finances.

Our plans.

Our future.

Christ was never meant to simply be another piece of the life we are building.

He is supposed to be the Cornerstone from which everything else is built.

Jesus also taught us about becoming like little children.

“Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” — Matthew 18:3

There is something beautiful about childlike faith.

A child does not need to understand every mile of the journey before taking their father's hand.

They simply trust the one who is leading them.

Maybe that is what surrender really looks like.

We surrender our kingdom so that God can build His.

We stop demanding to know every answer before taking the next step.

We stop trying to control every outcome.

We stop trying to force open every door.

And we simply take the Father's hand.

“The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way.” — Psalm 37:23

Notice that Scripture speaks about our steps.

Not only the destination.

That means the waiting can have purpose.

The closed door can have purpose.

The storm can have purpose.

The delay can have purpose.

The struggle can have purpose.

And even sitting on a hotel patio at the end of a long week talking with people you had never met before can have purpose.

As I enter this final month of my assignment, God has reminded me once again that success cannot simply be measured by what we build, what we fix, what standards we establish, what numbers improve, or what we accomplish.

It is also measured by whether we recognize Him along the journey.

Sometimes God opens doors.

Sometimes God closes doors.

Sometimes He asks us to wait outside the door.

Sometimes He protects us by never allowing the door to open at all.

And sometimes, before worrying about which door comes next, He reminds us to check the foundation upon which we are standing.

When Christ is our Cornerstone, we do not have to fear every closed door.

We do not have to understand every storm.

We do not have to know exactly where the road is leading.

We simply have to know Who is leading us.

Become childlike.

Surrender your kingdom.

Let Christ become your Cornerstone.

Trust Him with the doors that close.

Walk faithfully through the doors He opens.

And never underestimate the stranger God places beside you along the journey.

Jim and Helen were simply trying to finish their trip.

Matt and I were simply sitting on a hotel patio.

Pastor Edward was simply sharing his testimony.

Yet through each encounter, God was reminding me of the same truth:

He is still directing our steps.

He is still building.

He is still closing doors that need to be closed.

He is still opening doors that no man can shut.

And He is still placing people in our lives at just the right moment to remind us that none of this journey is by accident.

The adventure of walking with the Lord truly never gets boring.

And as one chapter of my journey begins to come to a close, I cannot wait to see which door He opens next.

“For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” — 1 Corinthians 3:11

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