The Door

Knock and the door will be opened to you ……

This is such a simple statement. But is it a command, a suggestion, a promise, perhaps?

It is so basic that virtually all translations of the original read identical:

Knock and the door will be opened to you ……

However, like all statements from this source, it is simple and yet unimaginably complex – not wholly understood by the wisest, most intelligent human minds.

Regardless, some years a while ago, a person who I love faced a challenge. I did not believe it would be a tough challenge, but it was a big step for her. So, if the instruction is - Knock and the door will be opened to you ……

I knocked.

And it initially seemed as if the request would be promptly answered and the door would open.

But just as quickly as the door opened, it slammed shut. It was a false hope, appearing as a cruel trick.

We were back to square one, so I knocked again. 

But disappointedly, there was no progress. There was no answer - none. It seemed as if no one was home.

What’s wrong? Knock and the door will be opened to you …… I’m knocking. No one is opening.

In our flawed mind, we interpret the statement as “knock once,” and the door immediately swings open wide. But it doesn’t say knock once, and it also doesn’t say knock gently.

I knocked. I knocked. I knocked some more. I kept knocking - nothing.

This was highly frustrating because this is a situation where the longer it takes to succeed, the harder it gets to succeed. So, to me, there was pressure to have this resolved soon.

A year went by, and the door remained shut. I continued to knock.

The repeatedly unanswered petitions generated doubt. This request was good and pure and noble, and it wasn’t even for me. There was no good reason why this was taking so long. This whole thing should have been done by now. I could not understand why the door remained shut. Yes, I had doubts, yet I knocked still again.

After three years of knocking, there was some progress that generated much hope. I could feel the door loosening. There was a small crack, and perhaps it would open soon.

But then there was a setback. The door quickly shut, the lock securely clicking in place.

I stared at the door in disgust. Hope had been vanquished again. I was crushed.

And yet I knocked. I wondered what I lacked; in that I was knocking but the door was not opening as stated. But I did not lack faith. The act of continuing to knock when there is no answer is a sign of substantial faith. You only continue to knock on a door when you believe someone is home. I knew someone was home, yet there was no answer, and the door remained shut.

The knocking continued for years. However, as the frustration grew, the knocks became pounds and then two-fisted strikes accompanied by yelling, as desperation set it. “Are you listening? Can you hear me? Do you see what is not happening here?

It says “knock”. It does not say “beg”. Just knocking wasn’t working, so I begged for the door to be opened, but the result was the same.

And then there was progress again. Hope returned. The door had cracked open. I then did everything in my power to open that door. I ran and slammed against it with all my might. I pushed with all my strength. Trying this hard and failing was painful and exhausting.

Despite my efforts, the door would not open. It would not even budge an inch. Unfortunately, in this circumstance, partial success meant that total success was unlikely. There were now added barriers to getting the door opened. 

The next time I approached the door, metal bars were bolted across it and huge locks were wrapped around the doorknob. This door would not and could not be opened. I had tried everything to get the door open, but now the new circumstances had made it impossible.

It forced me to reevaluate the situation. The person most affected by the current state of things was happy. Everyone else involved with it was happy too. Therefore, I decided that I would have to become satisfied with it also. It wasn’t the outcome I desired, but it was a better situation than when it began. I would settle with what we had. I would come to peace with the circumstances. And … I would stop knocking.

Accepting this outcome was a process that took some time. After knocking for over eight years, settling doesn’t come quickly. Eventually, I was able to be completely satisfied and at peace. It felt good not having to knock on that door and free myself of the resulting worries and frustrations.

But then disaster struck. A terrible, unfortunate mistake was made, which caused the entire structure to come crashing down in an instant. The damage to the process was massive. There was no fixing this. There were consequences to this action that could be enduring.

I was devasted. I was distraught. I was distressed. It hurt bad and it hurt deeply. It was one of those all-encompassing emotional pains that you cannot shake. I was angry at all parties that had contributed to this mess. And I could not understand why just after I worked so hard to accept the situation, it had suddenly disintegrated.

I was in persistent agony for two days. Rolling the details around in my head in a torturous loop. As I surveyed the damage, I saw the door lying among the rubble. The bars still firmly attached; the huge locks fully engaged. But as I stared at the destruction, I had an epiphany – the door which would not open, had been ripped off its hinges and now was just a pile of waste. This disaster had destroyed the structure, but that impenetrable door was no longer an impediment.

Then I heard a voice say: Turn around

There was a new structure. I walked over to the door, which was the same as the original one, with no steel bars or heavy locks. I stared at the door, as I had an important choice to make. This is the acid test of faith.

It’s easy to walk away at this point. It may even be logical to walk away. However, faith is not easy – neither is it logical. It’s just faith, or it isn’t. Circumstances change. People change. Everything in this world changes except ……

Knock and the door will be opened to you ……

So, I knocked - and knocked again. And kept knocking for another nine months. Until, the door swung open. Just like I had expected it to nearly ten years prior.

Knock and the door will be opened to you ……

And keep knocking.