COMPASSION FOR OUR DEFENSES

“When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ After He said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’”  (John 20:19-21 NRSV)

God does not condemn us for our wounded ability to trust.  You and I often tightly close our inner doors out of confusion, fear, and pain. God understands that our inner defenses, our emotional armor, our separating walls have grown in us for a reason.  And this God of limitless mercy will not kick down our doors, tear off our masks and armor, or go away angry.

This God, whom we see through Jesus, will continually come to us through our defensive doors, to be with us in power and comfort in our darkness.

-- Flora Slosson Wuellner in “Heart of Healing, Heart of Light”, published by The Upper Room, Nashville, TN.   Used with permission.

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OPENING SHUT DOORS

Myth: “Some doors are so closed, not even God can do anything about them.”

Actually, locked doors are kind of God’s specialty… If God can open the heavy door of a sealed tomb, no circumstantial door is too closed to Him. Consider what happened after the Resurrection:

“When it was evening… and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked… Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’… A week later His disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’” (John 20:19,26 NRSV)

The doors of our lives are not closed to God. He has the power to enter into our circumstance and grace us with His presence.

-- John Ortberg in “All the Places to Go… How Will You Know?”


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OPENING THE DOOR TO A NEW FUTURE

Jesus said, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand -- repent and believe the Good News!”   (Mark 1:15)

Jesus did not say, “The Kingdom of God is at hand -- regret and believe the Good News!” The difference between regret and repentance is the difference of an opened door to a new future.

God’s doors, like His mercies, are new every morning.

Frederick Buechner writes, “The sad things that happened long ago will always remain part of who we are just as the glad and gracious things will too, but instead of being a burden of guilt, recrimination and regret that makes us constantly stumble as we go, even the saddest things can become, once we have made peace with them, a source of wisdom and strength for the journey that still lies ahead.”

-- John Ortberg in “All the Places to Go… How Will You Know?”


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