Standing in the doorway

Feelings abound. How many times through the last few weeks I have wished that I wouldn’t feel anything. Wouldn’t feel the hurt. Wouldn’t feel the sadness. Wouldn’t feel.

I have even thought that feeling nothing at all would be better than feeling what I’m feeling. I’d gladly give up the feelings of happiness and contentment, if during the hard times I didn’t have to feel the pain.

Collapsing into my shell would be my choice. Shutting the door and never opening it again. Opening eventually results in pain. Recoiling is my first choice. Pulling my hand back from the hot burner. And, isn’t pain a tool used to teach us? Teach us what not to do?

But what happens after you recoil, locking the door and rolling the key under the door… so you can't ever open it again? What happens when someone else finds that key? The key to your heart. Your stone, cold heart. They unlock the door… and, opening it, expose you to the light on the other side. Show you your darkness…. But, then, without condemning your position, they reach their hand out. To you.

But you don’t. You don’t move. You don’t reach out. You just sit there. Not wanting to again be hurt. Not wanting to need again. Not wanting to love again. Not wanting to feel again.

But, what do you do? What would you do? What did you do?

What you did changed your life. What you do is going to change your life. What you would do will happen. Eventually.

Will you stay in the shadows, unwilling to take the hand before you? Or will you again trust, even with the remembrance of what happened before?

Will you take a step toward that hand? Or do you lash at that hand, cowering behind the past?

No one should be on the inside of the door in every relationship. Because there is a Perfect One. One who never lets down. One who never changes. One who never makes mistakes. One who never leaves. One who never forsakes. One who never rejects.

Even if someone hides from everyone else, they MUST allow the Lord to comfort them. He is the TRUE Comforter. If we have Christ… we need nothing else. We don’t need to let anyone else in as long as we have Him.

And, yes, after trusting Christ to heal the pain, we slowly begin to trust others…

 How this truth has comforted in a personal way...

For those who are on the other side… holding out your hand to someone in desperate need of a solace, you have to be willing to accept them where they are. Just how deeply they have been hurt only changes just how much you have to love them.

Pass me not, O gentle savior. Hear my humble cry.

While on others thou art calling do not pass me by.

Savior, Savior. Hear my humble cry.

While on others thou are calling do not pass me by.

Let me at the throne of mercy find a sweet relief.

Kneeling there in deep contrition, help my unbelief.

Thou the spring of all my comfort more than life to me

Whom have I on earth beside thee? Whom in heaven but thee?