AT THE DOORSTEP

To be at the doorstep from my point of view is to be at the entryway to a change in life. The one thing we do know in many cases is that unlike a regular doorstep, we normally don't know for sure what lies beyond the door. We might have a reasonable idea, but until we pass beyond where we are standing we won't have the confidence of really knowing.

God often brings us to such doorsteps. The key to passing beyond is faith. Now some imply that trusting God somehow is like a shield where nothing bad ever happens when you are trusting him.

I don't think God is ever desirous to cause us harm, but there are times when we only learn from our mistakes. So in order to get his point across to us the Lord will in his wisdom let us pass through a door where we end up stumbling in the process instead of finding a safe or secure place to call home.

Perhaps if life were more perfect and we wiser none of this would be necessary. But it never seems to work out that way.

So there are times for our own good that God will have us at the doorstep where opening the door doesn't lead to heaven. Ultimately I think there will always be a benefit or blessing, but at the time it might not seem that way.

Thus is the delusion and error of some teachers. They only want to paint Christian in whitewashed tones that avoid allowing the person being able to see the flaws. For them they treat their teaching as a form of sales pitch where you need to sell some one on the idea of buying your believes. So if you don't make it appealing enough they won't accept what you say.

In the long run this ends up being a disservice to the believer. For God's path is not one that is totally devoid of tears. He could never prepare us for eternity without adding some iron to our souls. You can't do that on a diet of marshmallows.

The problem is that life itself often affords us too many moments of tears. So we look to our spiritual realm for doorsteps that are naturally more uplifting. And in our quest we become myopic in our vision. We see only what we want to see and never see the truth of how the doors to tears are sometimes the ones that lead us to places most enlightening.

But the game will always be played by some. They will dangle their keys of looky-looky and treat the whole issue of doorsteps with a irresponsible need to paint what lies beyond the door as perfection.

That works right up to the point you enter the door. Then as God intends the truth prevails. It isn't always pretty, it isn't always uplifting, but it is always the truth. Whether we embrace it becomes a matter of soul searching. Sometimes if we allow God's spirit to lead the search we learn in the process.