Sunday, September 18, 2011

The Grey Door



Do you have an object, person or event that you use to get you back into focus? Do you have something that you think about to get yourself back to center and help you focus? I know a lot of people that are of my faith typically have a few things: a bible, a cross, Jesus Christ and God. For me I have a very unique item to return me to focus on the journey that I have taken. There is a single grey door that I use to help me align myself with the Lord.

What is this door? Where does it go? It’s not about where it goes or what it is for. It is a symbol of where I wrestled with the Lord until I bowed to him and accepted his grace and glory. It is a door at Durham County Jail in pod 3B. I no longer remember the cell that it belongs to by number, but it was the bottom floor and the second cell on the right side.

It was this unlikely place that I found my way back to God. I promised myself that I would not forget that door, and if they ever tear it down the jail I just might buy the thing to hang it up in a garage or something just to keep it. So why is this door so important to me? For many people they see going to jail as the end of the line. Others see it as a stop on their road along their destination called life. For others still, it’s a reunion of sorts.

I was amongst the second group. It was a stop that I was expecting to see on the roadmap of my life. So with each stop on the journey of your life you have to decide what to make of it. Jail is not the end of your life, but it certainly will make life a bit harder for you. For those of you that see Jail as a place to reunite with friends and family, well you need to really make a choice about your life. There are options, which lead me to my first point.

I know most of you that are reading this know the parable of the sower from Luke 8:5-8. The sower went out and cast his seeds; some of them fell on rocky soil others fell amongst thorns and the last feel on fertile grounds. The parable talks directly to the willingness of the heart of the person. Now we all know that these three kinds of ground can be good soil to plant in, they just need a bit of work for the seeds of God’s word to bear fruit.

A jail is a very fertile ground for sowing seeds, but the soil is cluttered with briars, rocks, weeds and many other things to choke out the seed that God would plant in their hearts. It takes a lot to keep that soil good for planting. Well that is where my own soil was cleared away allowing me to accept the seed of the spirit. I have become a very different person. I look back to those days and see who I was coming into that place and the man that I was when I walked out, there is no comparison.

The power that God has to change a person that is WILLING to change is amazing. This message is to give hope. By now everyone is probably getting used to the fact that I am here to say that no matter what you have done, there is a way out. You can say what you want about what you have done, but Christ shows us that there is hope; people can change if they want to change. Not once will you hear me say that it will be easy. Change is hard, and people in general do not like to change.

You do not have to go to jail to change. Look at one of the most influential people in the New Testament, Paul. When he became Paul, he was hunting Christians to kill them. God struck him blind along the road and changed his heart forever. He also disappeared for a few years and came back a different man. So change that drastic was not quick.

Each and every day is a struggle as we go along trying to figure out how to survive in the world today. We learn through repetition and pattern. If a plus b equals c once we expect it be that way every time. Which leads me to question, do we actually know how to think and learn for ourselves?

Well for this statement I say that we only do what we can. Why is it so hard to change? Because in life people begin to expect things from us, if we have acted a certain way most of our lives, well people expect that from us. When we do something that is different, people ask if we are OK. Maybe we are not, but is that always a bad thing? No. If we always take the same roads in life, we can miss out on so much. People are the same way. If you only talk to the same people that you have talked to all your life, you will be missing out on so much from those you are not talking to.

Change is what you make of it. If you want to be changed you can be. You have to allow yourself to change and allow yourself to submit to the will of God. He will handle a lot of the rest. Trust in him and devote time to him daily. Draw yourself close to him and he will ensure that you have what you need. Not one day has gone by since I became a Christian that I have not had what I needed. Many have gone that I did not have what I want, but that is not his promise to us. The door worked for me, but it doesn’t have to be what works for you.

This door that I am talking about was a good seven foot tall and about 32 inches wide. It had one narrow window to look through. Where it lead to? Again nowhere. It’s not about where the door leads you, it is only about what it means. It means lessons learned. It means you are dead and holds you in the birthing womb until you are ready to be born again. It means that God has you where he needs you to be to work on you. This hideous and ugly door means that you have a choice to make.

The choice is this. You can either a) keep living your life the way you have and accept the fate that will come from it, or b) make a change that will reverberate through every other change that you will make from this day to every day beyond it to live different. This is so much easier to say than to actually do. Ecclesiastes 11:8 tells us to rejoice in each day that we are given and remember the dark days for we will see many of them. These days come to temper us and strengthen us.  Ecclesiastes also tells us this in which I will leave you with: “Remove sorrow from your heart, and put away pain from your flesh…” for it is all Meaningless. Live life and enjoy it. Remember to take time out of your busy schedule to actually live life. Have fun; enjoy your partner, your family and yourself.


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