You might have read this poem before from Sam Shoemaker, which has been used in the STEPS tradition over the years. It really fits for preparation this Sunday as we anticipate closing our series on “Filling the Holes in Your Soul.”
I stand by the door.I neither go too far in, nor stay too far out.
The door is the most important door in the world -
It is the door through which people walk when they find Christ.
There is no use my going way inside, and staying there,
When so many are still outside and they, as much as I,
Crave to know where the door is.
And all that so many ever findIs only the wall where a door ought to be.
They creep along the wall like blind men,
With outstretched, groping hands.
Feeling for a door, knowing there must be a door,
Yet they never find it . . .
So I stand by the door.
The most tremendous thing in the world
Is for people to find that door - the door to Christ.
The most important thing anyone can do
Is to take hold of one of those blind, groping hands,
And put it on the latch - the latch that only clicks
And opens to the person’s own touch.
People die outside that door, as starving beggars die
On cold nights in cruel cities in the dead of winter -
Die for want of what is within their grasp.
They live on the other side of it - live because they
Have not found it.
Nothing else matters compared to helping them find it,
And open it
And walk in
And walk in
And find Him . . .
So I stand by the door.
