The Hallway: Waiting on the Doors in Life

By: Brooke Keith (Excerpt from upcoming release)

There’s a hallway I’ve been in my whole life. And it’s not success I’m waiting on.

The Lord has been so faithful to open doors.

Doors to ministry.

Doors to heavenly riches.

Doors to service.

Doors.

I doubt Dorothy’s farmhouse was large enough to include a hall. Not if we are being time period specific. When you read the book, it sure feels like home girl was running awfully fast to get away from it. So fast she left during a tornado. That’s some serious ambition… (Or disassociation though I couldn’t tell you which.)

Funny. Dorothy was running away from the door I wish would open.

A farm.

A village.

A storm cellar for the winds and rains of life.

Family.

That’s the door that I wait on in the hallway of life. Maybe you can relate. You know, I often think about what people wait on in the hallway of their own life. For a lot of people, it’s the doors I’ve already gotten to open. For me? It’s the doors other people take for granted.

Chickens? Success.

Auntie that adores you? Success.

Farm hands? Success.

Home? It’s in the hallway.

One of the best sermons I’ve heard in a while was an ad lib. “You’re going through hell in the hallway.” I liked that analogy because usually? We preach at our flock to “praise Him in the hallway.” But honestly? The right answer is probably somewhere in the middle. Praise Him BECAUSE it’s hell in the hallway. That might be what helps you hold on while you’re standing there.

Paul seemed sort of fried on relationships when he presented letters to the Church of Corinth. “It’s better to be alone.” As a preacher, I hear it. I get why. You have more time for God. You are more focused on Him. People are often confused when I don’t center life on marriage. When I don’t get excited about someone’s white dress. Happy for them, yes. Excited? Not my style. I’m usually thinking about the logistics of the wedding itself and the counseling that leads up to it.

Corinthians is one of the best books in the Bible to recite at a wedding, but Paul? He wasn’t real big on married love. I also couldn’t help but miss what sometimes felt like an undertone in the author’s works. Maybe it wasn’t really but I can’t help but note… Peter was married. Peter didn’t say this. Had Paul had some bad experiences before he found Jesus? We will never know. All I know is Paul was said to have a thorn in his side he never reveals. Something he has to deal with for life. I always wondered if one of them was an unopened door in his hallway.

Truth is that I can only wonder. The hallway one day becomes a testimony of how the Lord delivered you. How He came through. How He got you out of that hellish hallway. But while you’re in it? You might relate a lot to Dorothy, running straight into a tornado just to MOVE… anywhere really.

When it feels like you just can’t stomach the waiting anymore, remember what Dorothy got herself into. Witches who wanted her head. Flying monkeys. Wizards behind curtains who couldn’t really help much. A mess really. Sometimes we have to run into the storm to learn. But I don’t believe God wants us to learn the hard way. I think He would much rather us stand in the hall even if the years are passing by quicker than we would like to admit and wait on His door.

I may be writing this from bed in the middle of the night but in my “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen” way… the door I’m waiting on is glass. I could try to kick, scream, and shatter it open… but I won’t. I’ll choose to stay present even if sometimes disassociating and running into a tornado sounds kind of adventurous. At least not as bad as looking in at a world I don’t belong to anymore.

But one. Fine. Day. I know the door will open because He is faithful.

Not because I kicked it.

And I’ll be glad I didn’t kick it… what if I accidentally hit a chicken? I’d never forgive myself.

 As you wait in the hallway of life, I’m there with you in spirit. Better yet, God will never leave or forsake you. Even when it’s absolutely hell in the hall. Heaven cares. And heaven understands. And somewhere? There’s a date, time and second recorded that has your very name on it. When the door swings open. When you’re ready, really ready. The kind God deems ready. Well, then you will never take it for granted. And you’ll never forget who opened it.

God is a gentleman after all.

 Opening doors… even for little girls who run away.