DOORS

“I am the door. If anyone enters by me he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.” JHN 10:9 NIV 

Doors have their own set of rules. If open, go in. If closed, there is no access without knocking; only enter if you know what is on the other side. You can question, wonder, seek, look through the tiniest cracks in the wood, peer through a keyhole, but do not enter. Knock first. It is easy enough to enter after knocking if the door handle is unlocked; just turn it and head on in. But your confidence level soars if you should be holding the key to that door! You have no fear of what is behind that door. You have been here before. You know where everything is situated, what is in store, good or bad, right or wrong; if you hold the key, you already know. 

 This seems like an elementary life lesson you might find on one of those “All I ever needed to know about life I learned in kindergarten” posters. Common sense dictates to even the simplest of minds to knock on the darn door if you are unsure what’s behind it. Remember the TV show “Let’s Make a Deal?” I used to love picking door number one, door number two, or door number three. Sometimes I won, sometimes I didn’t, but none of us would have ever known if the host hadn’t asked for the doors to be opened. Can you imagine how popular that show would have been if the doors had never opened and we never knew what treasures or calamities were waiting behind them? 

 When the doors of life are unfamiliar, the place not known, the scene challenging, and the outcome questionable, our confidence to turn the handle is much more challenged. What then? Do we turn away? Walk away? Talk to friends about how we never wanted to go through that stupid door anyway? And what if we know that opening that door will flood our lives, which is neither productive nor healthy? Yes, in this life, there sure are some doors that are not in our best interest to go through. Yet, some days, we open those nonetheless. 

 Doors of anger, as we know, lead to quarrels among us. Why open them? Doors of lust open to us unusual and seemingly warm wonderful experiences, only to have the colors run to black and the warmth turn to ice. In a flash of a moment, we are drifting on a cold foreign sea with barely a raft wondering how and why we went here in the first place. 

 Doors of deception prove yet to be another place of destruction. This subtle door eases us into its room, one tiny statement, philosophy, and judgment at a time. The clouds are so massive and thick that no one would ever be able to navigate their way through, and with each tiny step over the threshold; the intensity of the darkness grows exponentially. Doors of greed bring the expectation of comfort, pleasure, and prestige. As long as no one knows our wealth was ill-gotten, we sail through life afforded with accouterments and privilege. But what happens when our pockets get holes, our money sprouts wings and our plans unravel right there in the teller line at the bank? 

 So then, which door? How do we know? How do we keep ourselves from the destruction and head over to the doorways of those life-filled rooms? Here’s an idea; why not try knocking first? I know it sounds wild, but do you think the plan for our lives may include asking God and knocking on the doors BEFORE we decide to enter them? And what about those emotional doors?  

Those seem to suck us right to their thresholds. Would a simple whisper of the name of Jesus be enough to break the power of the suction for us to regain our footing? I am sure of it. I've walked there before, like just ten minutes ago...again! And every time, He is faithful. Every time.

 Door number one, door number two, or door number three? Or how about another door where, just over its threshold, there are hallways and hallways of rooms filled with good? There is such a door, and I found it! The really cool thing about this particular door is whenever you knock, anytime, any day, any hour, He’s always there and waiting to open it just for you.