Open a new door today…

September 30, 2023

I remember years ago watching The Price Is Right with Bob Barker. There was always a segment in each show where the contestants were given a choice of three doors, behind which was either a great prize or a bust. These days there is a wedge on the Wheel of Fortune prize wheel that is either worth $10,000 or is a Bankrupt. Contestants who land on that wedge must make the choice to move forward with what they have already won or take the chance on that wedge being worth $10,000. Open a new door today.

Life presents many instances where we are faced with multiple doors – multiple courses of action. The doors that we are presented with seldom present the choice of $10,000 or bust; however, they do often present the choice to try something new or to meet someone new or to ignore them as you pass by. Open a new door today.

Life presents us with many choices every day. Behind each choice (each door) lies the unknown. Some doors may be marked, “Danger, proceed with caution”, while others just look innocuous, no matter what dangers lie beyond. One may be stopped by the real or imagines dangers and never open any doors; or, one may be cautiously optimistic and open doors only after getting prepared for whatever might be behind them.  There are those also who blithely open all doors with little regard for the potential consequences. Open a new door today.

The most common doors that we are faced with each day involve personal relationships – whether to return a greeting from someone or ignore it; whether to return obvious affection or hold back; whether to commit to a relationship or spurn it out of fear or unwillingness to commit. Those are doors in our lives. There may be wonderful things behind those doors. Occasionally there also might be a bust. You will never know unless you open the doors. Open a new door today.

There are few things as sad as ending a day or a life with only memories of what you “coulda, woulda, shoulda” have done, with only a gallery of unopened doors in your memory. Life will take care of presenting the doors to you. It is up to you to make the decision whether to open them or not. My advice is to go big or go home. Open a new door today.

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Posted by Norm Werner

But, it’s not an automatic door…

December 17, 2020

Pastor Freed used this quote today in his blog, Jack’s Winning Words –“Every wall has a door.”  (Emerson) 

That quote gets used a lot in inspirational posts or signs and is meant to encourage people to not quit, but to look for the way out of the situation that they find themselves in – to look for that door. Pastor Freed went on to relate how Michael Jordan used it to explain that he never quit when he had early rejections or failures in life – he found a way through, or over, or around the walls that life threw up in his life.

I suspect that many of us approach those doors like we would the door of a major retail store, like Kohl’s or Target. We expect them to be automatic, to open as we approach them. Most are not that way. The doors to opportunity in life require not only that you look for them; but, also that you actually work to get them open and go through them.

Some doors may even be locked when we get there and we have the further challenge of finding the key to unlock them, so that we may open them and go through. Some doors are even hidden. I saw a post on Linked In recently were a man approached a wall that had an obvious door in it, but he pushed on the seemingly solid stone wall next to the door and a passageway opened for his to go through. Maybe the message there is that one must also look for hidden solutions to life’s problems and challenges.

What do you do when you walk up to the storefront door and it doesn’t automatically open? Do you give up, turn around and go back to your car? No. You reach out, grab the door handle and open it yourself.

The doors the we may face in life are not automatic and we must work to find and open them, so that we might go forward in life. The important take-away is to not allow yourself to be satisfied with being shut out of what’s behind each door that is preventing your progress.

This morning, in your prayers, ask God, not that He make the doors that you encounter in life open automatically; but, rather for His help in finding the key needed to open them and allow you to move on with your life. Ask Him to strengthen your faith and give you the patience and perseverance to work at opening those doors.  We read in the Bible –

“For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.” (1 John 5:4)

If you think about it, God has already given us the ultimate key to life’s last door – Jesus. For, with faith in Jesus, we can open the door in the wall of death and enter into eternal life.

Keep working at it through prayer. It is not an automatic door.

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Posted by Norm Werner