“How many of us feel the compulsion to always go back to where we came from-to return to what we know, to what we can predict, to what we can control? Is it possible that we, too, are afraid to go out a different door? Yes, the new way out is full of uncertainty, but with that uncertainty come mystery, adventure, and wonder.” -Erwin McManus, Seizing Your Divine Moment
For most people, a pattern emerges: we stick with what we know. I know that I tend to cling tightly to whatever is familiar, known, and controllable. I cling to those things that I see as certainties. Sure, there may be a better option available, but why lose risking what I already have to gain what is possibly greater, but also uncertain? Why do I, and why do many of us, keep only to what is known? Because of fear. We are afraid to try out a different door.
But I think there is another answer to this question. Yes, we don’t venture into the unknown because we fear it. I think there is another reason why we keep going in and out of the same door in our lives: beginning to use a new door requires the possible death of the old door.
But isn’t that what life is all about? There are many mini-deaths in our lives…the death of a relationship, the death of a season, the death of an old way of living. But God brings life from death. When something in our life dies, it is creating space for God to move-creating a space for God to bring life from an area that is now without life.
Even though these mini-deaths can be painful, I want to discover how to embrace the future and to be excited about the new life that can come from it. This life just might come through a different door.
“I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” -John 10:10
