JUST OPEN THE DOOR!
08/09/08 21:49
I know a beautiful young Christian woman who is
spiritually dry right now. She hates going to church.
She says Sunday is the worst day of her week. She is
frustrated when other believers talk about hearing
God because she feels abandoned. She can’t sense His
presence. Heaven is silent.
Do you know anyone like that? Or is this your story?
Jesus tells us in the book of Revelation, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with me.”
“Jesus is knocking on your door every day, just open the door,” I suggested to my friend.
“How do I open the door to Jesus if I can’t even hear Him knock?” she asked.
I illustrated it this way:
My sister Lisa loves pictures. Her house is full of framed family portraits. One fall, when her kids were preschoolers and she was a cash-strapped pastor’s wife, she clipped a 25% off coupon for framing. She decided to do several pictures as Christmas gifts, and multiply her savings!
Lisa’s husband Richard took her out for a date each Friday morning so they decided to make the framing shop the first stop even though they typically did not use “date” time for errands. It was a chilly morning in Winnipeg so while Richard shrugged into his large black overcoat, Lisa gave last minute instructions to the babysitter and off they went.
They pulled up right in front of the framing shop at 9:45 a.m. and saw a woman seated at the cash register inside. They hoped she would notice them and open up 15 minutes early so they could quickly be on their way. She looked up at them but never moved. Precious date-minutes ticked by slowly as they waited in the warm car. Lisa fidgeted. Richard drummed his fingers on the wheel.
Ten o’clock came and went and the cashier never left her seat to unlock the door.
Finally, at 10 past 10, Lisa had had enough. Grabbing her coupon, she bustled up to the door and stopped, waiting for the woman to come and let her in. The woman looked right at her and then continued her work, not leaving her post.
After standing in the cold for five minutes, Lisa stomped back to the car and said, “Coupon or no coupon, if that woman is too lazy to walk over and unlock the door, she doesn’t deserve our business!”
But by now Richard had invested too much time to walk away empty-handed. “Maybe if I get the frames out of the trunk, the lady will get the idea and open up her shop,” he suggested. Dressed in his knee-length black overcoat with the collar pulled up against the icy blast and his dark glasses, he unfolded his broad-shouldered six-foot-two frame out of the car and walked around to his trunk. After opening it, he looked straight at the cashier rooted to her perch and waited.
Her response was to grab the phone and start talking without taking her eyes off Richard.
Frustrated, Richard left the frames in the trunk, slammed the lid and got back in the car. “Forget it!” he said. “If she doesn’t want our money I’m sure someone else does.” He put the car in gear and started to back up. Just to be sure, he asked Lisa, “Did you check to see if the door was actually locked when you were standing outside?”
“No!” she blurted. “I didn’t see her unlock it so I assumed it was locked.”
Jamming the car into “Park”, Richard jumped out, ran to the door and pulled it open. Rushing in to the framing shop, laughing at his comedy of errors, he tried to explain to the wide-eyed woman behind the counter who was clutching the telephone like a lifeline. She failed to see the humor because this modern-day Bonnie and Clyde who were casing out the joint scared her so badly she had called the police!
Assumptions!
Lisa and Richard assumed the door was locked. The cashier assumed the big guy in the trench coat was going to rob her and his wife simply came along to aid and abet. Everyone wrongly assumed.
How often do our assumptions lock us out of where we could be? How often do our assumptions about who Jesus is keep Him out of our lives? Too often.
Jesus is knocking. Do we hear Him? Do we open the door? Or do we feel like that door only opens for others? My spiritually dry friend feels that way. Her Jesus is more like the big intimidating guy in dark glasses and a trench coat whose voice can’t be heard outside a closed door. But that’s because she doesn’t know who He really is.
The way we get to know Jesus is by opening the door.
“But how do I do that?” my friend asked.
“It’s not that complicated,” I explained. “Every time you make a choice, you can open the door to Jesus…or not. When you flip on the radio, the station you choose can be an open door. Or not. When you pick up a book, the one you reach for can be an open door. Or not. When you activate the computer, that can be an open door. Or not. When you watch TV, go to a movie, rent a DVD, the choices you make can be an open door.
“When you gather with other believers for worship, teaching or socializing, that can be an open door…unless you choose to isolate yourself. When you drop off cookies to a new neighbor or sick friend, you’ve opened a door. When you smile and speak kindly to the harried cashier in the grocery store on Coupon Day, you have opened the door to Jesus.
“He’s always knocking. He wants to make you a better you and your world a better place. Don’t just sit there. Get up and open it. Just like Richard, once he got inside the framing shop and had a chance to explain, He’s a lot nicer than you assumed!”