Is it just me or does anyone else have the problem of going from one room to another room to get something and then forget what you went to get? How does that happen? Have you ever walked into a room and forgotten why? You have a clear purpose in mind but, by the time you take a few steps and walk through the door, you forget what that purpose was. That happens to me all the time. Am I just getting old? Is my brain wearing out? Am I crazy?
If you have that problem, I have some good news for you. Recently, psychologists at the University of Notre Dame have discovered that passing through a doorway triggers what is known as "an event boundary in the mind," separating one set of thoughts and memories from the next. Your brain files away the thoughts you had in the previous room and prepares a blank slate for the new locale.
Now I’m not sure what all that means, but what I got out of that is this: it’s the door’s fault. I’m not getting old, I’m not crazy, my mind’s not fading, it’s not aging. It’s the door’s fault. I thought that was good news.
Good news is something our world is searching for. One needs only to review the headlines of any newspaper to become discouraged; and yet the Good News is ours as believes in the Lord, but we must know who we are - and whose we are. In the Gospel of Luke (10:38-42) we are introduced to two individuals - Martha and Mary.
Martha entered the room and immediately what came into her mind was work, action, activity, duty. Busyness was her mantra and getting it done was her method of life. Martha did not even take a break when the Son of God showed up at the door. Tasks to do. Things to finish.
Mary on the other hand, well, she was interested in presence not activity. She was willing to relate to the person who was at the doorway and to be with them. Relationship was the passage way she wanted in her life, and she walked through it often.
It is so important to know who we are and who other people are. If we know what makes us tick and what makes other people tick, we get along better. If we understand where we are coming from and where other people are coming from, we relate better. There is more compassion, more empathy and more kindness. When Jesus looked at Martha that day, He saw some warning signals, some danger signs within her which were more harmful to Martha herself than to anyone else. Jesus loved Martha. They were good friends and that day, He saw in her some doorways that were making her forget what was really important in life. This forgetfulness was harmful to her soul.
But we are people of Good News. Read Revelation 3:20-21, "Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and we will share a meal together as friends." Jesus is knocking on the door of our hearts. When you open the door and invite Him in, He is promising us, "That in my Father’s house are many rooms." (John 14:1-6) When we make room for Jesus in our hearts, He makes room for us in His house forever.
Have you opened the door of your heart to Jesus? Are you so busy walking thru the doorways of tasks, duties, lists, accomplishments, that you are forgetting Him. Are your weeks so packed, your days so filled, your hours so few, that when it comes to the doorway of Sunday morning - well you have forgotten to honour Him?
Let’s be people of Good News. Let’s not become forgetful. Let’s not permit busyness to be our mantra, but let’s make the method of our lives always have time for family, friendships and above all faith so that one day we might walk through the doorway of the rooms of the Father’s House.