With the New Year there is closure and speculation about the future. We find ourselves at a formal portal to things different and new and an opportunity to view what is past as prologue and to live the saying, “today is the first day of the rest of your life.” All outcomes, of course, depend upon follow-through. And follow-through can be boiled down to steps taken in commitment.
Faced with the future and desiring favorable outcomes I’ve put a great deal of my trust in belief that there is a “God Plan” for my life in which I believe there is to be found purpose, joy and a paradoxical source of refreshment and energy draw from the challenges and trials I encounter versus having energy drawn from me by them. In the midst of uncertainty and change I have often asked God to show me the way – to show me a doorway to His perfect plan for me - that I might walk through it. Those doors, however, do not always materialize and I struggle to identify them.
Saying that one puts faith in a “God Plan” does not by any means imply that one's foot never hits the gas pedal or that one sits around passively waiting on God to act. God does what we cannot do but there is plenty we can and must do. We all have unique talents, abilities and things we do that make us come alive. Those are the things we are to do. Those are the things that, when done, trigger resources and energy and vigor in the doing. But you already know that.
What distinguishes between who takes what action and when, in my opinion, lies in the “initiation” factor. Although the subject of this piece is not “initiation” the concept of it bears some discussion as it is an element of activity associated with doorways, thresholds and portals. God is love and His love and character are initiating in nature. He goes first. After all, He is the initiator/creator of everything. John 1:1-4 (NKJV); “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.”
God leads and He leads by example. God also leads by first seeking (pursuing) us. In Romans 3:11 Paul is very clear to point out that the unconverted do not seek after God. God initiates the relationship. What follows is another matter. God pursues us as a lover pursues and He is possessively jealous of the relationships that He initiates. Initiating action is leadership action. Initiation goes first. Initiating action can be a thought, a vision, an idea, a notion, a glimpse of something that inspires or bothers us - a cause of which we become aware. In my opinion, those initiator things are “of God”. In a sense they are the things that draw our gaze toward His doorways. What follows is our action from natural ability and talent combined with energy fueled or inspired by and in response to the initiating impulse.
The Gospel of John, Chapter 10 captures the image of God’s initiating leadership and of doors and thresholds together (NKJV verses 1-4); “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.”
This concept of “doors” had me wondering what is really true about doors, portals toward new realities and new beginnings. Have I had a correct perception of doors? When I think of doors I think of something solid with hinges and a knob for opening. Maybe there’s a small peep-window, but generally the door is solid, probably of oak, and surrounded by a frame. There may be light coming from a gap under the door but, in general, the door is a barrier to what is beyond. It’s easy to get stuck in the notion that doors are barriers we must confront and open as if to penetrate a wall to get at what is on the other side. Maybe that’s not right.
Someone once said that the door of progress swings on hinges of resistance. The Bible warns us to guard our “door” for what is let into us and for what we let out. Where we interface with what surrounds us are our doorways; our eyes, our nose, our mouth, our mind. God advises us to keep a guard over the door of our lips in Psalm 141:3 and to “guard the doors of your mouth” (Micah 7:5). In Proverbs 4:23 (NIV) we are exhorted; “Above all else, guard your heart (the door to the soul – my interpretation), for everything you do flows from it.” If there are barrier doors they are our open/closed eyes, our open/closed mouths and our open/closed ears and after that our open/closed minds.
A plea for God to show me a door implies my abandonment of self-sufficiency and a receptive availability to His plan. How often has it been said that God uses and guides those who are available? When I’m preoccupied with my own agenda, my own intended outcomes, my own doors - then I'm not really available, am I? My senses, my doorways are closed and I don’t see the entrances He presents before me. The "oak" door is of my own construction. The resistant hinges are my will. God’s “doors” have no oak member, they are wide open portals!
There is a famous painting by William Henry Hunt (1851) of Jesus standing at a door. The door is overgrown with vines and appears that it has not been opened for some time. Jesus holds a lamp and appears to be knocking (Revelation 3:20). To those of the Christian Arminian bent the door signifies volition; the free will of all men to accept or reject the Christ as savior of the world and their soul. To the Calvinist the rendering is false – there is no door that can be put between God and man if God does not will it. On the other side of conversion, the door is the will against post-salvation discipleship. To me the door is figurative. Jesus might as well be standing directly in front of an individual who’s eyes are shut, hands are over his ears and head is turned away. The oak door is the hardened heart turned toward itself - the glow of His lamp calling us promisingly from beneath the door.
What really makes one portal different from another is a willingness to know that it’s there, to face it, enter it and commit with a step across its threshold. I expound a bit on commitment in my book, Fruition ~ Reflections on a life grafted-in. Once across the threshold, once that first step is taken, we enter the new reality and perspective of being in that new space. Everything hits us from a different direction, perspective shifts, opportunities present. Where there was no light there is now enlightenment. The horizon advances bringing vistas and destinations into focus that, before, were unseen and unknown.
Life is a continuum of doorways, thresholds and portals all transitioning and linked. Each step through one results in manifold outcomes and new realities. Every step is like piercing the veil of another dimension. Who can know what is next? This is exciting. We are forever at the threshold of what is next. One ounce of commitment converted into the smallest step makes the difference between the reality that is now and the next. To embrace what’s in store one must simply do the next thing whatever it is!
God show me a door? You’re at the door! Take a step in commitment!
All the best!
Bill
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