The One Who Opens Doors

This is part two of a two part series about the conception and seven-year evolution of this column. In part one, titled, “Knowledge isn’t supposed to be lost”; we contemplated the commission of passing on what we’ve learned. We examined the Biblical declarations that it’s God working in us to “…will and to do for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13); and that it’s God who gives you, “the desires of your heart.” (Psalms 37:4).

I believe the desires of our hearts, our passions; our enthusiasms, is God’s nudging us towards new thresholds, doorways to deeper, and more meaningful and satisfying lives. The Apostle Paul, referring to his call and passion to minister to the Gentiles, proclaimed, “For a great and effective door has opened to me…1 Corinthians 16:9). Allow me to explain why I believe that God is the one who opens these doors.

Several years before the inception of this column, I felt compelled to pass on the inspirational stories and the wisdom of hospice patients. To fail to do so would be a type of spiritual abortion. I started out verbally carrying stories from patient to patient, from house to house. And I found the stories to be wellsprings of validation, encouragement and inspiration. You see, stories have a way of slipping through our defenses. And it seems we need to touch the wounds of those who have been wounded like us, and survived, before we can believe that we can survive too. (John 20:24-29)

I also shared patients’ stories while teaching Bible studies. My family and I had attended the same church for several years, but my heart had been telling me for quite some time, that we needed a change; for people, like seasons, do change. And as a wise Christian brother told me, “The future isn’t always an extension of the past.” Therefore, we departed, embarking upon a new adventure. But consequently I was no longer afforded the opportunity to share patients’ stories through teaching.

I grew disillusioned and questioned the continued value of taking the time to scribble out notes between hospice visits. I prayed, “Father, I don’t see any way to use these stories. One of these days when I’m dead and gone my kids will probably find my old handwritten notes and won’t even be able to read them. So they’ll probably just throw them away.” I didn’t hear God’s audible voice, but His words were resoundingly clear, “You just keep doing what I’ve directed you to do and I’ll provide a way, for I am the One who opens doors”.

A few weeks later I received a call from Brent, a young man who worked for the Portsmouth Daily Times. Brent asked, “Loren how would you like to write a weekly column?” I could hardly believe it. I thought, “Who in the world am I to write a column? There are hundreds of people more qualified than me.” That was 190 stories and seven years ago.

I called Brent this week to review the sequence of events that resulted in the conception of this column. He recounted, “I’d just graduated from college and I needed a job real fast, so I took the first job I could find. I started out working midnights in the mail room stuffing inserts into the papers. I would go home with ink all over me…I’d only been at the paper for five days when I saw an ad in the classifieds for a copy editor. So I applied and I was bumped upstairs.”

It wasn’t long before Brent and a coworker were commissioned to publish a special “weekly” edition of the newspaper, and Brent’s first feature story was about, you guessed it, hospice care. Brent, who I barely knew at the time, arranged through his mother, Debby, a hospice nurse, to accompany me on a visit to interview one of my patients. Afterward, Brent and I reflected on the interview and talked about the philosophy of hospice care. I shared my passion for passing on patients’ stories and about the stack of handwritten notes in my bottom desk drawer. I had no idea that I would later receive a call from Brent asking me if I would like to write a column. You see, God truly is the One who opens doors.

In conclusion, my questions to you are, “What are the desires of your heart?” This isn’t a rhetorical question. I challenge you to take the time to write them down. Now, “Are you being true to them? A “great and effective door” may be opening before you, a new threshold. Will you exercise the courage and faith to step through it?

One of my favorite authors, Charles Finney, in his book, “Power from God”, cautions, “Do not undertake what you have no heart to do… See that you have a heart and not merely a head call…” But when God does give you the desires of your heart, for God’s sake, for your sake, and for the sake of all those around you, don’t hold out and don’t hold back. Take the plunge and enter the adventure of living. And when you can’t see the end, just keep doing what God has directed and inspired you to do; for He is the One who opens doors. And He will.

“These things say He who is Holy, He who is true, He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts and shuts and no one opens…I know your works, see I have set before you an open door and no one can shut it..” (Revelations 3:8)