Barriers, and then again BARRIERS

Barriers can come in many different forms. My favorite barrier is represented by the Outer

Banks, the barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina.

There are barriers that have been erected for a purpose. Frankly, I often feel safer with some sort of door or gate between me and outside. I keep my apartment door locked, as I did the front door of our house. I almost always lock my car. While these doors and locks won’t necessarily keep out someone who is determined to obtain entrance, they do provide a measure of deterrence to others.

Scott Tong shared with me this picture of a typical threshold at the entrance to a home or other building in China. He said that older thresholds were even higher than this one. They were intended to keep rising water out, I believe (Scott, correct me if I remember this wrong). While they might serve to keep water out, they also could easily become a stumbling block to someone entering the home.

These are barriers that can be helpful, but then there are others that inhibit, not just physical ingress (entrance, not the online game), but also psychological entry. Some could be styles that disinvite persons from finding a way in—doors that are not clearly marked, steps that are hard to climb, body language, insider language, and others.

If we are called to offer the light of Christ to persons in the world, then we need to provide a true welcoming spirit and place. CCUMC does seek to be welcoming.  The question to ask is when, where, and what barriers are helpful, and when, where, and what ones are truly a hindrance, especially inadvertently.

I love my particular favorite barrier island of Ocracoke; I feel more secure with a door and lock; and thresholds can block water from entering a home, but the impediments that keep persons from finding relationship with God through God’s people are not okay. How can we take a look at our practices and our structures to be even more open and inviting?

Revelation 3:20

Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.