The professor announced a ten-minute break at the half-way point of class, and I eagerly slipped off to the bathroom. However, as I climbed the stairs, I saw a friend and started chatting and time swiftly passed unnoticed by me. I was not aware of my classmates making their way back to the room, and by the time I realized break was over, I was alone. I raced back to the classroom, realizing it had been in session for several minutes already. Thanking God I had sat in the back, I reached for the door…it was locked. I tried it again, but it wouldn’t budge. Beginning to panic, I tried to think of a plan, but my options were limited. I could either wait out the next hour and a half, or I could try and get the attention of a classmate.
The two doors to the classroom were located at the back, with a large window between them. I knew I couldn’t walk past the window to the other door, since I would walk clearly into my professor’s line of sight. I sighed and leaned out from the door, hoping a casual glance backwards from a fellow student would alert them of my predicament. Nobody noticed.
I began to pace back and forth, my mind racing. I had tried everything! Out of desperation, I tried again to turn the locked door handle, a little harder this time. Suddenly I had a strange feeling. I took a step back, and surveyed my position. I was at the wrong door. In fact, I had been trying to break into a kitchen. Taking several steps towards the window, a slight curve in the wall revealed the real door, which opened on the first attempt. Coming in late has never felt so good.
Many people are knocking on the wrong door. The world is filled with diverse people, all holding different worldviews that offer varied answers to life’s questions. So how does one determine which is right? One thing is for certain, there can only be one truth. Logic necessitates that if one thing is true, the opposite cannot at the same time also be true. However, in a pluralistic society, truth itself becomes lost.
Never before has the world offered so many “solutions” to the big questions of life, yet people continue to wander like sheep without a shepherd. Suicide remains the clearest declaration of hopelessness one can employ, and it is claiming the precious lives of young people every day. Surely there is more to life than this!
Jesus offers hope for the hopeless, rest for the weary, and love for the broken heart. The problem is this: Most people are knocking on the wrong door. Although a vast number of doors stretch out before us, only one leads to God. We all have a choice…which door will we choose?
“I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture.” John 10:9
Mike Blackaby is 25 years old and is the college and young adult pastor at First Baptist Church in Jonesboro, GA. Mike loves to play music, loves to snowboard, play hockey, and cheers for the Colorado Avalanche. He is terrified of spiders, but loves reading fantasy novels, watching movies, taking road trips, building camp fires, and will do any roller coaster if someone goes with him. You can contact him via Facebook.