The Bendy Door

 Many years ago when I was younger and living with my family, we had a comfortable home. It wasn’t perfect. It had its flaws. But it was warm, dry and comfortable.

The living room had a door which led from the room out onto the downstairs landing. The top right hand corner of the door leaned out a very tiny bit at that corner. None of us ever noticed it nor paid any attention to it in all the years since the door was hung. The door never creaked and when it was left ajar it stayed in the position we left it.  It was used quite a lot to regulate the temperature of the room when we got too warm. We would open the door very slightly, or halfway, and the door would silently open and stay in that position until we needed to close it again.

One day a friend, who was a woodworker, called to visit me. I brought him in to wait for a few minutes while I finished off what I was doing. As he was sitting there he noticed the closed door with its slightly outward incline on the top right corner. “Who hung that door?” says he. “That shouldn’t be like that.” At which point he stood up and started to gently manipulate the door back and forward so as to straighten it again. I must admit that after a few moments the door looked the part. It was square, flush, and aligned.

However. That door never worked properly again. When we tried to use it as a “heat regulator” for our room the door would slowly close again. And the hinges would creak the whole time. We tried some of the usual lubricants, but they only lasted a while when the door would start creaking again. We’d be sitting watching television when slowly, but very quietly,  we would hear the sound of it slowly closing. C-r-e-e-e-a-a-a-k-k-k-k. One day I closed it by throwing a cushion at it. At which point it slowly started to open again. C-r-e-e-e-a-a-a-k-k-k-k.

Sometimes, in the church, we can start to fix things in ourselves, and others, that aren’t really that unbearable in the first place. Oh, our door wasn’t straight, but it was quiet and regulated the temperature brilliantly. After being straightened up it never worked the same again.

God has brought us into the church as we are. Flaws, warts and all. His will is for us to become more like Him. But, believe it or not, there are some flaws and warts that God doesn’t heal. Because it is part of His mysterious Will, that we come together and function as we are.

Because it’s those very shortcomings and idiosyncrasies that join us together as a smoothly functioning part of the Church.

Comments

Post a Comment

Like

Popular posts from this blog

The Voyage To The Unknown

In fourteen hundred and ninety two. Columbus sailed the ocean blue. He had three ships and left from Spain; He sailed through sunshine, wind and rain. And so the poem by Jean Marzollo goes. It’s a glamourous and fantastical poem about what was a dangerous and hastily threw together journey. I was listening to a sermon by my favourite online preacher when he spoke of Christopher Columbus. He said…..               When he set out, he didn’t know where he was going.                When he got there, he didn’t know where he was.               When he got home, he didn’t know where he’d been. Our “faith journey” as a Christian is very much like that. Everything starts out at some point in our lives. And we do the things that we do to join in with other Christians and churches. But most of the time our journey leads us on twists, turns and detours that we coul...
Read more

Welcome to St. Goldilocks.

The vast majority of us have heard of the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. And we all know the story of how Goldilocks was walking through the forest when she spied a cabin and went inside. Then the main plot of the story begins. As Goldilocks tried out the porridge, the chair and the bed there was always one that was far too uncomfortable or too cold, one that was not too comfortable or too hot and one that was just right. This story has given rise to something referred to as the “Goldilocks Zone”. It refers to an optimum area where everything is in balance and not too extreme. A comfort zone, if you will. Astronomers refer to our planet’s orbit as being in the Goldilocks zone. Too close to the sun and we would burn up. Too far away from the sun and we would freeze. Some businesses use the Goldilocks theory as a model and balance for their workplaces. Their dilemma is either too many workers but not enough work, or too much work and not enough workers. So the management try to...
Read more

Built In A Hurry.

Many years ago I worked on building site which was building high-end houses. Very expensive, very large and fitted out with all the latest materials. A certain customer walked into the company’s offices one day and asked to see a plan of the new house being built. The builder showed him the plans which showed the various road layouts and where each house would be built on each road. The customer pointed to one of the buildings and said that he wanted to buy that particular house and that he wanted construction to start on it right away. The house couldn’t be built right away as the roadway hadn’t been constructed nor any of the other dwellings built yet. The customer said that he had the cash and that he could pay in full right away. And so the builder started work. The roadway was laid first and the various water, electrical and communication cables were all laid. Within a few days the roadway was built and the ground site cleared to start laying the foundations. After they were layed...
Read more