DOORS TO FRIENDSHIP

Some hotel doors hold a secret to resolving conflicts.

You've likely stayed in a hotel room with a set of doors joining your room to the next to form a suite. You know how they work: I can open my door, but there's no way for me to open yours. Or you can open your door, but not mine. They can both be shut or they can both be open.

Our friendships are like those doors. If both doors are open we can share our love and concerns with each other.

Too often, however, friendships go sour, often over a trifling matter. "Well, if that's the way you want to be...." And I slam my door shut.

No matter how much you try to renew the relationship, until I open my door it just won't happen.

Or maybe it's you who gets in a huff, so you slam your door. I can apologize 'til I turn green, but if you won't open your door I may as well be talking to myself.

Worse yet is when both doors are shut. You stand with your back against your door, and my back is against mine. We both fold our arms and declare smugly, "Well, I certainly told him!"

Yep. I certainly told you, and you certainly told me. But where does it get us? Nowhere. The doors between us are shut. The friendship is over.

But we're both Christians. Would we do that?

We shouldn't. Yet even between Christians the doors to friendship can be shut. Many people have left one church to attend another, because they can't stand to sing hymns in the same sanctuary with those who have, they believe, wronged them. And each self-righteously thinks himself better than the other.

But the doors are closed, and each of the adversaries dares to call himself a Christian.

Jesus says otherwise. He says, "People will know you're my disciples because you have love one for another (John 13:35)."

If both doors are shut, where is the love? If the love is gone, where is the Christian discipleship?

If you're involved in a closed-door relationship it's time to get on your knees and ask Jesus Christ to help you open your door. It will take a lot of soul searching and humility, but know what? When you finally open your door, you may be surprised to see the other person already standing there, waiting with his door open.

Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love.

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