I'm sorry sir, we're finished for today

               It was lunch time and I was looking for a quiet, distraction free place to pray.  I left work and set out to find a church near by.  I new of a few in the area.  So I started with the one I was most familiar with and which was the closest.  Funny though, the doors were locked.  Maybe I was too early.  Oh well, there were a few more I knew of.  So I got in the car and was off.  Unfortunately, every door I pulled on was locked.  Finally I wound up back at the first church.  I figured I would give it another try.  Maybe it would be open now. 

            It wasn't.  But I did see an elderly man walking on the grounds.  Maybe he would know when the doors opened.  Maybe he had a key.

            "Excuse me.  Sir," I started, "Do you know when they will unlock the doors?"

            "What do you want sir?"

            "I'm just looking for a place to pray," I answered.

            "I'm sorry sir, we're finished for today.  You'll have to come back some other time."

            I would have to come back some other time.  I asked myself what good a church was that had locked doors?  Then I asked myself what good we would be if we did the same?

            So many times we pick days, or times during the day when we say, "Okay, my doors are open.  Do you need to talk?  Can I help you?"  But just as often, we close those doors and reply, "I'm sorry, I'm finished for today.  You'll have to come back."  Where would we be if our Lord treated us the same?  What if, when we needed Him most, He said, "Sorry not today."?

            So what if thieves break in to the church?  Do we care so much for what we've put there?  Which is a better testament: to forgive the thief and keep the doors open for them to return and see Christ's love or to lock them out and say "you can't trust anyone these days".  God's purposes will be accomplished.  Why must we continue to get in His way?

            Don't lock your doors.  When you lock out the sheep, you lock out the Shepherd.

            I sat in my car, in the parking lot.  And I prayed.  Thank God He was available.

SDG