“I wish I had never opened that door!” Upon parking my car in our garage I was looking forward to being greeted by the blue eyes of Mollie who was half Siberian Husky and half Alaskan Malamute.
The daily grind had been tough that day responding to endless emails, attending meetings, answering calls, and meeting quotas. Stress had attached itself to me like some black mold. I was hoping Mollie would lick it off.
I approached the back door in our garage which led to the backyard without any forethought. I quickly turned the knob and pulled the door open. I SCREAMED! I immediately slammed the door. “What was that?! That was not Mollie and those eyes were black as coal!” I started walking in circles in the garage. No one was home but me. “What am I gonna do?!”
I decided to take a peek at the creature behind the door yet again. Slowly I opened it and immediately I heard a growl-like sound. There sat a opossum crouching behind the door who raised up at me exposing its teeth. I slammed the door again. “Where is Mollie?!”
I looked out the garage window and there she was, standing frozen in the middle of the backyard taking it all in. With the help of our neighbors’ high pressure hose I chased off that nasty marsupial.
There are many other doors besides that one, I wished I had never opened in my own personal life. Sometimes temptation comes and finds us and sometimes we go looking. What is your vice? Everyone has one, if you are honest.
I thought once I crossed the line and believed that Jesus bore my sins on the cross, the struggle would be over. Wrong! The penalty for my sins was taken care of once and for all by the blood of Jesus Christ. However, the war continues for my soul and yours.
From his book Genesis, Moses warns (4:7) “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.”
So what does “crouching” mean in the context of this verse? Sin is waiting to be stirred up and destroy us. If you and I open the door to the enemy’s invitation to sin, we are rousing it up! Randy Stonehills’ classic song “Shut De Do” fills my mind:
“Shut de do, keep out de debil
You shut de do, keep de debil in de ni-eet
Shut de do, keep out de debil
Light de candle everything’s alright
Light de candle everything’s alright”
The journey you are on will come to a halt unless you face your sins. Your spiritual growth will be stunted and you will trip and fall on the rocks of your own sins until you confess them. Shut De Do and ask God for help, yes again. Now continue your pilgrimage…again.
pictures courtesy of “Nelson & His Nikon”.
