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doorsThis particular bit of wisdom just cracked me up. Like, duh, it’s a door, open it! I am one of the first ones to be lost in the wit, whimsy and woo of sayings like, “when God closes a door, He opens a window,” or to be endlessly engaged in the task of, “patiently waiting on the Lord.”

Sometimes I wonder if God isn’t up there scratching His head and going, “I don’t get this crazy woman, I gave her a door and she just stands there looking at it. What, was I supposed to send some handsome fireman down there to open it for her too??”

For the record, God doesn’t ever speak to me like that, He is infinitely patient, gentle, with no sarcasm, but if I were Him I would be speaking to us like that. You are all lucky I am not Him. I would make a real mess of things. Just for fun.

Sometimes I think we people are far too passive, always waiting for someone to do something for us, waiting for just the right timing, hesitant, fearful of seizing the day. The other half of the time I think we’re just pointlessly aggressive, probably suppressed resentment about having been so passive for so long and missed so many opportunities. Balance, balance in all things. No need for such extremes.

Hebrews 4:16 says, “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Sometimes I like to think of Peter, just step out of the boat, keep your eyes on Me, and walk on water.  I can also think of a dozen excuses I would have used if I were Peter, like yeah, the water is cold, there’s a storm, I don’t want to look like an idiot, I’ll drown, and See Lord, there’s this thing called physics…

Yes, come walk on water and also stop fishing for fish, let’s go fishing for men….

God does seem to like to ask impossible things and take us way out of our comfort zone.

Many of us get all tangled up in, “I wish, I want,” rather than asking ourselves, why isn’t it so? Why haven’t I done it? Why am I not saying, “I will,” rather than, “I wish?”

There’s a bit of scripture that says, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”

That wording, “it will be opened to you,” is very wise. It is yours for the asking, just knock. Just ask. Not that it will be quite like you imagined, not that I will send a handsome fireman down to open the door for you, not that it will be easy, but here be opportunity, thousands and thousands of opportunities every single day. Seek and you will find. Grab at least a couple of them.

Prayers are vitally important, prayers have tremendous power, I don’t want to ever dismiss the significance of prayer, however something that drives me nuts is when we just say, “I’ll pray for you.” Sometimes that’s all we can do and sometimes that alone has the power to change everything, but there’s another side to that too, where we refuse to act on someone’s behalf or even for our own.

Not unlike seeing someone stranded on the side of the road and driving by saying, “hey, I’ll pray for you!” Uh, yeah thanks. I actually don’t require love, nurturing, or prayers, what I really need is a gas can…

Doors are meant to be opened, that is what they are designed to do. Now walls, walls are bloody challenging. Walls make me absolutely crazy because if I cannot scale them I am compelled to simply gently pour water over them, day after day, year after year, hoping to bore a hole, like water on stone. Or perhaps more like a prisoner with a teaspoon, trying so hard to pick the grit out and free the bars.

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