Funny how a small handle can make a doorway a barrier. {Image credit: edu1971 / 123RF Stock Photo}
Ever hated an inanimate object? I have… it was my front doorknob. Over time, it went from requiring a complex jiggle to open, to having to body-check the door and sacrifice a small animal. I’m pretty sure it even provoked some of our God-fearing friends to swear.
Which is why, when my soft-spoken step dad complained how much he’d come to hate our front door handle a few weeks ago, I loaded us into the van and drove to Home Depot. Two hours, a drill, and some elbow grease later, we had a door that opens without dislocating a shoulder. Weeks later, my kids and I still open and close it, giggling, because even my preschooler can work the handle.
Funny how a door that opens can make such a huge difference, bring such joy.
But you already know that.
You’ve got a few in your life that have opened and changed everything, maybe for the better, maybe seemingly for the worse…. but they’ve changed it.
There’s hope behind that door.
There’s opportunity behind that door.
There’s healing behind that door.
There’s relationship behind that door.
Yesterday, another door whose handle I’ve been jiggling for a while (since I wrote my first story in second grade?? Or maybe since I stopped being a chicken and start writing this blog…) opened. I squealed and danced in my car as I heard the message: my first book contract is on it’s way! I’m leaping through this cracked-open door, ecstatic, hopeful.
Then there’s this other door I’ve been knocking on for a while. The one my daughter’s healed heart lives behind. Still knocking there.
How can we fully leap through one doorway—embrace breakthrough in one area of life—and keep knocking at another?
Maybe that’s what another writer was talking about when he said,
“I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” – Philippians 4:11-12
That’s the secret. The doors open, we run through in His strength. The doors don’t open, we keep knocking with His strength. The doors require elaborate handle-wiggling and frustration and a dislocated heart to open, we press in, keep pressing in…. all in His strength.
We can do everything through Him who gives us strength.
Everything.
We can be still. Walk through doorways. Love the good in life. Listen to a hurting friend. Follow a dream. Ask that question. Survive the breakthrough that scares us silly.
In Him who gives us strength.
In Him… snuggled into arms that protect, provide, pull us close to His heart.
As you face your door today—whether you’ve just started knocking or you’ve faced it a long while—may you know that deep contented feeling of life IN HIM who gives you strength.
-Laurie
“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient…” (2 Peter 3:9)
