WALL BUILDING

We are all basically wall builders. It seems to be our defense mechanism for whatever comes our way. This is certainly the plan for how our minds and bodies are put together. The walls protect us from ensuing attacks of anything we do not want, need, or fear. We learn at an early age to be expert wall builders. What we learn is to build just the right wall for just the right situation. We constantly re-adjust the situations and therefore re-adjust the walls. Trouble comes when we do not know how to re-adjust, or to build the right wall for an impending situation. When our walls crumble, we crumble. Most of the counsel we are given is to ‘Let down your guard,’ or ‘Take down your fences,’ or ‘Break down your walls.’ I am not so sure this is the answer.

If a wall comes down it lets someone, or something, in. Entrance can only be determined by trust and longevity of relationship. So often entry is allowed by charm, or sight. ‘It seemed O.K., he was such a friendly person.’ Friendly, nice, and even courteous, are not reason enough to allow entry, they are just good reasons to return friendliness, niceness and courteousness. Entry is allowed by faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these is love. Faith is first because it is the action of being convinced we can allow entry inside our walls. Hope is to discern and compare this experience with all the others and to assume and desire that this is a right entry. Love is the permission and acceptance of another inside our gate.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.” Jesus