Today Is a Good Day to Open the Door
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I recently gave up something dear to me, although “gave up” may not quite be the word I’m searching for.
I hung up on my calling.
It felt like it was necessary.
At the hands of a stranger, something happened to me and even after all this time I haven’t quite figured out how to handle it. Fast forward to the present and I have now lost count of how many months it has been since my publicist described my new existence in my perfectly comfortable “cave” that shut out the world.
“You’re wasting your talent,” she said with a smile. “Today is a very good day to open the door.”
At least she had the heart to break it to me easy. Others weren’t so nice. “God doesn’t want quitters,” they said.
Ouch.
It hurt to hear those sorts of things and mostly because they were things I was already telling myself. I have, after all, spent much of my life coming out of a series of failures, slamming doors on opportunities, and being all around difficult.
(I know, I sound like a real winner.)
Despite my shortcomings, however, they have always helped me to be better at what God called me to do. In fact, I sometimes felt like it had to be this way; otherwise, how could I ever have known how to tell you that God is infinitely good even when we are infinitely not? I know this because I have slammed enough doors in God’s face undeservingly to know that He doesn’t quit on people.
Nor does He break down the doors they slam.
He, instead, draws close to them, like the broken things behind them. He never gives up on those doors opening. God even tells us,
“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock!” - NIV
God is persistently good. He gives us the freedom to be lost, even though it’s not His will that we should be.
Ultimately, God is the Father of a bunch of rebellious teenagers, their ages know no limits. They are seekers, hiders, runners. They are those who know Him and those who do not. Even those who hate Him and everything He stands for – He longs to know them, to hold them, and to cover them in His grace. They need only ask — and it is done.
I don’t know who you’ve let down.
Maybe people tell you that God doesn’t like “fill-in-the-blank” or that you are a disappointment to what you were created for or some other horrible thing that you already suspect. I hope that it doesn’t take you as long as it did me to realize that in Christ Jesus there is no condemnation. If you are feeling condemned and you don’t know Him ... come to Jesus. You’ll find nothing but mercy here. Our loving and gracious God, who in all His infinite adoration for you and me, gave His only Son to die for us so that we might never have to bear the shame, guilt, or punishment for our failures. The gift is free. The gift is good.
When you feel less than, know that there is sanctity in condemnation because God understands it full well. If you are hiding in your own “cave,” know that there is no space God cannot enter, no darkness His light cannot break open, and no enemy too great that His strength cannot compensate for your weakness. He can handle your anger (because He loves honesty.) He can handle your need to rest. (The world won’t stop if you do.) He can even handle your slammed door and the brokenness you are hiding behind it.
You know, maybe this is God’s roundabout way of teaching us both something -
Although He doesn’t mind waiting for any of us, today, well, today is a very good day to open the door.
“And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion…” Philippians 1:6 ESV
Copyright © 2017 Brooke Keith. Used by permission.
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