Some Doors Call While Others Wait
By Maddie Allen
"How am I ever going to get better?"
The question hung in the air between us.
This client had been coming to counseling for years - showing up faithfully, doing the hard work with quiet courage. Together we had walked through stories of deep pain and trauma, and had witnessed meaningful healing along the way.
And yet, here they were again. Sitting with familiar aches, old narratives stirring, standing before another door, heavy and familiar, wondering how many more looked just like it.
"How am I ever going to get better?"
Anxious hope, and overwhelming doubt hung in every word. Another client was just beginning their journey. As we sat together, gently turning over their story, an image began to take shape.
They were standing at the beginning of a long hallway, stretching out before them, lined with doors on every side. Some were humming with a quiet call. Others waiting in unhurried silence.
Growth waiting. Pain still to be walked through. Standing before all those doors, of course this question would surface.
Two different clients. Two very different places in their journey. And yet facing the same hallway, asking the same question.
Many come to counseling with the hope of finding one clear wound and one clear path forward. Instead, they find themselves standing in that very hallway, surrounded by doors, each one holding a story.
The more I have walked with clients on the road to healing, and explored my own path, the more I have witnessed the vastness of a human life. We each carry multitudes of stories: moments of love and loss, deep grief and overwhelming joy, trauma and restoration and everything in between. And woven through all of it runs a single thread: a story of deep loss and devastation, and of fierce, unrelenting rescue and redemption.
It would take more than a lifetime to unpack what it means to have lived in a world marred by the Fall, and to have been reborn into new life in Christ. We cannot possibly open every door. And perhaps, God in His love and mercy, never meant us to.
Some may find themselves staring down this vast hallway, tempted to never open any door at all. There can be a kind of safety in lingering, in staying where the doors are still closed and the pain of the past and the future unknown remains at bay.
But the hallway was never meant to be a home.
There is a difference between a door that isn't ready to be opened and a door we are keeping shut out of fear. One requires patience. The other requires courage. Part of the tender work of healing is the courage to truthfully name the difference.
This is where overwhelm and discouragement can creep in. The temptation to abandon the path of healing altogether whispers in our hearts. If all of this is true, then you may wonder what is the point of walking this hallway at all?
Let me offer this: what if the point was never to open every door, but simply to be faithful to the ones that call?
What if some doors are meant to remain closed for a season, or even a lifetime? What if you weren't responsible for unlocking every door but only for walking through the ones that are already open to you?
What if the path of healing means opening the doors that call, even when it costs us?
What would that mean for your healing?
I believe we often take on a greater yoke than what was ever intended for us. For every person who would brave this hallway, I want to bear witness to this evergreen invitation:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
You are called to a yoke that is kind and benevolent. One that isn't measured by results or end destinations, but by the willingness to hold both clarity and mystery. One that stretches and bends but does not break you. One that asks us to be present to the tension of pain and hope in each room you have chosen to walk through. One that anchors us in the truth that death and devastation will never have the final say in our stories. And one that invites us to rest in the promise that we do not have to carry the burden of healing alone or all at once.
If you find yourself in that familiar hallway, many doors stretching out before you, may this be your rest: Jesus is already at every one.
Maddie Allen sees clients at our Downtown location as well as online. If you are interested in scheduling with Maddie, please reach out to our office at 407-405-7677 or contact Maddie directly. Learn more about her and her approach to counseling here.
