When the Doorbell Rings
Eagerly Waiting for Eternity
I’m sitting down writing this in an unidentified and undisclosed location.
Okay fine, I’ll spill.
I may or may not be in my home.
Here’s my update:
Since I last wrote a couple of weeks ago, my family and the rest of the residents on our chronically pothole-infested street have been experiencing quite a few hectic nights.
To tell you the truth, we’ve been the recipients of cruel and unusual punishment.
From whom you ask?
Ding-dong ditchers.
Yes! The nerve! Have you ever been ding-dong ditched? If so, you know what I mean.
(If you have no idea what I’m talking about, here’s an all too thorough walkthrough explaining the ins and outs of ding-dong ditching).
Anyways, these ring and runners.
They’ve resurfaced into a neighborhood full of scheduled sleepers and combatants of door-to-door salespersons (of which I may be the group leader of the latter).
After the first couple of nights scrambling to our spare room window to see who’s at the door, I can recall brainstorming strategies with Ali (my dear wife who I recruited for this kind of specialized crime fighting) so that we would be more prepared for the next time it happens.
More recently, I’ve been texting with her, providing some more vague than in-depth ideas that would equip us for battle.
Here’s one of the latest examples (you may have to zoom in to see):
You may be asking: do I actually have Spidey senses? How exactly do balloons defend against ding-dong ditchers?
Well, a good crime fighter can’t spoil all of his secrets.
I recently had more specific ideas — I’ll share this one with you free of charge.
It involved three pretty basic steps:
Wrap garden hose underneath Ali’s car in driveway.
Wait in the car (yes, even if it takes all night or doesn’t happen at all).
When the doorbell ringers arrive..
Spray
Honk
Genius.
However, none of these ideas materialized.
That’s probably for the better.
As much as I kid with you about how to defend against the art of ding-dong ditching, I’ve been pulled to wonder about a deeper meaning through all of this.
Like I said earlier, the first night I was ding-dong ditched, I was panicked and pretty flustered. I had no idea what in the world was going on.
My thought process kind of went like this:
“What was that? My doorbell at 9:31pm?”
“Ugh, I am never buying solar panels! They just don’t quit!”
“Wait, for real, who’s there? Are they gone already?”
And I was correct to wonder, right? I was extremely unprepared for someone to ring my doorbell that late at night.
Really, it all happened so fast.
And, as we sit together for a couple moments, I think this idea of “it all happening so fast” is where I want to land our plane.
—
Looking at Scripture, I love what the book of James says about the speed of our lives:
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
James 4:13-15 (ESV)
What is my life?
How often can we forget that we are merely “a mist” — our time is short here on earth, and eternity beckons at any moment.
*If you have 4 extra minutes, would love for you to watch this example by Francis Chan that so clearly illustrates the shortness of our lives in light of eternity.*
You see, we have only so many moments here in this world.
Yet unfortunately, with a life full of distractions surrounding us, we can fall captive to forgetting what lies ahead — planning our own course of life and forgetting the Lord’s will.
We can become devoted to the power of money.
We can spend our days lusting over status in our careers.
We can waste hours and hours distracted by glowing screens and social media.
We can play the addicting comparison game on Instagram, only driving us to despair.
We can feed an unhealthy habit that brings momentary happiness while leaving us crippled with the negative side effects.
Eternity is calling. What are we doing?
What we live for and how we live our lives during these days will determine the shape of how we approach our eternity, and sometimes even, where we spend it.
Even if we’ve made a decision to follow Christ in the past, we can easily forget that our lives are like a vapor of smoke, a mist. We can forget about what’s next.
Eternity seems so far off, right?
And we forget that the doorbell could ring when we least expect it.
I don’t know if this post has a witty ending. I would love to just encourage you this morning as we sit together:
Don’t forget about the doorbell. It could ring at any moment.
Even at 9:31pm on a Thursday night:
Keep your eyes fixed on eternity.
I love what the apostle Paul says about this topic:
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:18 (NIV)
So, if you’ve made the decision to follow Jesus, live it out.
Love the people around you where God has placed you.
Pray for your friends and your enemies.
Forgive where forgiveness is needed.
Confess where confession is called for.
Deny yourself.
Take up your cross(es).
Live life today like eternity starts tomorrow.
And I would strongly urge: if you haven’t made the decision to follow Christ, be mindful today of where your eternity lies.
Because the only way to the Father is through Jesus (John 14:6). We can’t do it or get there in our own strength.
We’re limited people. We need Jesus.
We’re not perfect, we’re flawed. His blood paid the price for all so that we may live.
The Word makes this clear:
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16 (NIV)
There is Love present for you today.
The promise of eternal life is available.
Only through Jesus:
believing in His perfect life, death, resurrection, and coming again,
and in confession that we have sinned, fallen short of His standard, and need His grace to carry us through each day until we meet Him.
The doorbell of our lives will ring.
We will likely be faced with the reality of eternity sooner than we’d imagine.
The question is..
Will we be scrambling to door and unprepared when it happens?
Or will we spend our days eagerly waiting for the day in which He comes or calls us home?
As we seek to look at Him together, I pray it’s the latter in each of our lives today.
In Grace,
Ryan