Locked Doors and The Magic Card

As the large door made a buzzing sound and the small click came – I knew I was in. The young lady beside walked a head of me down the long hallway. My destination room was on my right side – Chaplain’s Office. I stopped, reached out and opened the door. This one wasn’t locked.

I had made it that far by following the young lady with the magic card. The new security system of our new hospital is good. People that shouldn’t be in certain areas are kept out. People that should be there; breeze through open doors.

When I had completed my task at the Chaplain’s Office dropping something off for one of the staff Chaplains I returned to the large door. Oh oh… it was firmly locked from both sides and I had no magic card. The hallway was deserted – I was locked in almost the center of the hospital with no way out! What a feeling of helplessness.

Background…
As one of the On Call Chaplains at our hospital for 10 years I have been to the hospital many times…weekends, late nights, afternoons, terrible times and tough times – standing with families at crisis moments. It has become a way of life. My training and willingness has been put to full use often. But that has been in the old hospital. This one, the brand new hospital, is right next door to the old building that is now coming down. And everything is new.

I found someone that was in a side office. I asked her to let me out with her magic card. She smiled and shook her head…”I left mine at home today as well.” So together we went to the next office where she borrowed another magic card to get us both out – me to freedom, she to the bathroom.

My new magic card was waiting for me in another office on another floor. What a relief to have the new card firmly in hand and allowing me to go almost anywhere I needed to go. For the fun of it I walked up to a number of doors and swished the magic card over the sensor… which was followed by the buzzing sound and the small click came… I was in… YES!

Back in the locked hallway earlier as I waited, pondering what to do I had a strong feeling of being in jail. (I also visit in our prisons in the area and you go no where inside without waiting for locked doors to be opened – and sometimes the wait is longer than you expect.) Panic sets in quickly.

Last evening I pondered longer on this thought. This is so much like life for me. I need to move about quickly. I need to access certain areas to get on with life. I need certain answers to be able to function. But there is opposition and obstacles that slow me down – or even stop me.

The burdens and barriers are just too great for my ordinary ability to get through. Even my past and my other abilities will not do. I need a magic card to go further and access the new freedom to move on. But the magic card is either forgotten at home or has yet to be picked up. And if you don’t have that special, brand new, magic card you are stuck inside!

The magic card that I am in need of is a new application of “faith”. The obstacles and doors that are seemingly locked are the immediate life around me. At times I must wait for someone with a “faith key” to open doors. Other times it is far easier to simply possess you own “magic faith card” and swish your way through. But don’t lose your “faith card”!

The journey from the security of the former Pastorate to the unknown of a new position with a fuzzy support….that we are walking toward is a whole lot like my hospital experience of yesterday. The old ways and thoughts will not work. This is God’s new way and new challenge that we are taking. We need a new “magic faith card”… or simply and old step of faith that may have been left home or buried in the old life style of safety.

A long time ago..
A long time ago a large family had been blessed and was confidently secure with their present life. But that was to be shaken. All that they had come to appreciate and live by comfortably in was torn to pieces. Virtually WAR came to their door steps.

The former leaders around them moved on. They had died and new leaders moved in to the scene. The large family was viewed as a threat to the very existence of the new leader. Something had to be done to stop the large family from prospering more – and possibly growing as a threat to the new leadership… so the leadership put extra heavy burdens upon them with cruel tasks. The new leadership also ordered that all the new babies being born to the large family be carefully watched at the moment of birth – if the baby was a boy it was to be killed on the spot.

Can you imagine what it was like for them?

You may recognize the story of the Children of Israel. When they entered Egypt many years before they were very small in numbers and were immigrants to a new country. Now, they numbered so many that they were a threat to the new leadership who didn’t appreciate what one of their sons had done for the country to make it great. That was Joseph.

Now fast forward this story to the side of large and very deep body of water. There are millions of these family members standing beside one man, their new leader Moses. Behind them is coming a massive and most powerful army that is intent on their destruction. What do they do? Where is their “magic key” out of the impossibility they face.

I read this story again yesterday. I love it and need it.

Behind them and in front of them and around them is not an enemy but rather their God. And this God is the God of all power and all love and all grace and all EVERYTHING.

In Exodus 14 you can see this snap shot of their moment…
12 Didn't we say to you in Egypt, 'Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians'? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!"

13 Moses answered the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. 14 The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still."

15 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. 16 Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground.

Then it says….
21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the LORD drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, 22 and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.

Moses at that moment stretched out his “magic card” (a lot better than my hospital security card) – his staff and God did the rest.

Today – you and I need a miracle. Time is running out and the fear is slipping into control. We need a God Intervention…and right about NOW would be RIGHT ABOUT THE RIGHT TIME!

Today I make a choice to trust God and not anything else. I make a choice to “Stand firm… I will see the deliverance the LORD will bring to us today.”

He is my hope! How about you?

Dry ground under your feet.... instead of a sea bed that has always been covered with water – no way!? Really? You betcha!

~ Murray Lincoln ~

Resources:
Exodus 14