The Doors

At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ...

How many doors do you walk through in a day? Do you walk through the same 7 doors thousands of times? Do you walk through a hundred different doors a day? Do we walk through doors so often that we forget the significance of them?

Paul doesn't. He recognizes that doors are the barriers between worlds. They keep outside out and inside in. The separate the wild from the domesticated, what we fear from what we trust. Walking through a door can change your life or the life of someone else.

Paul prays for God to open doors for the word, for people to let something new come into their world.

He knows that he can't open those doors. He knows that forceful entry isn't acceptable. He knows that the only way to enter someone's world is to be invited. He knows the only way they'll invite is if God has been there first.

We can't change people's hearts. We can't make them believe. We can't make them open their doors and let us in. Only God can. That should be our prayer, too.

God, open doors for your word. Open them in the people we see every day; open them in our community; open them in our world. Be with us as we walk through life, help us to see the doors that are open. Give us the awareness to see the openings. Give us the courage to walk through.

What doors exist in your life?
What doors do you walk past every day?
What doors have you known but never walked through?
What doors do you pray for?
What doors do you keep trying and trying and trying, even though it's been
locked for years?