Knock, knock
Who’s there?
Doctor
Doctor Who
The punch line comes early because well, it’s Doctor Who. Now I’m not a big Doctor Who fan, but I was enraptured by Matt Smith and did find myself watching a couple of episodes from his first season merely because of his charm. But what if the joke doesn't even get that far because of people’s distaste for knock, knock jokes?
knock, knock….
Knock, Knock…
KNOCK, KNOCK!
It’s left hanging like a hand up for a high five never taken. And you feel like the fool.
I wonder.
Do you ever feel like you are left hanging when you pray?
knock, knock….
Hey God. That is where you ask me who's there, ok?
Sometimes I sure do think I’m being left hanging and then feel like the joke’s on me.
Luke 11
5Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ 7And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ 8I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.
9“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
11“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
I like that. Shameless audacity. God is encouraging our shameless audacity!
I did that once at my house. I left for work at 6am. As the door came closed I already knew what I was leaving behind. Keys. Eh, kinda need that.
No worries, Laura’s in the house. I’ll just knock and wake her up.
knock knock….
Knock Knock….
KNOCK KNOCK!
Really?
That's ok. I'll use my shameless audacity. And I did. Here's what my shameless audacity included: KNOCKING, calling her cell phone, calling our home phone, going outside to buzz the extremely loud buzzer, and doing all this again 3x. I even wrote a letter and slid it under the door just in case that might work!! HAHA! I considered throwing rocks at her window. That was my next idea.
I was left hanging for such a long time. I easily doubted and wondered, when do I just give up? But to give up wasn’t really an option either. I have to go to work. I guess I keep knocking, Knocking, KNOCKING!
Come on Laura! Don’t leave me hanging. This is when you say, “Who’s there?”
22 minutes.
That’s how long it takes to watch a full episode of The Middle on DVD. That’s how long it takes me to get ready in the morning. I can bike to my favorite spot in Hines and back in 22 minutes. It is also how long it takes to wake up the dead at my house! Her name is Laura, and she sleeps like the dead. 22 minutes feels like a very long time to knock on a door from my personal experience.
She was dazed, confused and I believe slightly annoyed since it was only 6am.
But it worked. My obnoxious knocking, Knocking, KNOCKING that I thought was useless did in fact stir her from her slumber and irritate her so much she had to respond.
I was grateful, annoyed myself and somewhat alarmed at how hard it was to wake her up. And then I went on my way to work. 22 minutes late.
And it was there in my car when God taught me a valuable lesson. He said, “This is what you do in prayer.” Oops. I knew what He meant. He wasn’t speaking about my awesome persistence. He was speaking about that moment I began to think, when do I give up? He was speaking about my doubt, because on very specific accounts in my own prayers, I had given up.
For me, persistent knocking meant to pray earnestly when I felt like praying or was upset about something. And then when I’ve prayed for something a few times or when I began to feel foolish, it was ok to stop praying about it and move on.
No! If we are praying in God’s will, there is no option for knocking to ever stop. I was wrong. Yes, I might get frustrated. Yes, doubt will creep in. Yes, I might think that God is leaving me hanging. Yes, I will feel silly for making such a racket. Yes, I might wake up the neighbors. Yes, I might feel like I’m wasting my energy. Yes, I may even feel like the joke’s on me.
But I have only one option.
Knocking
He promised this will happen….
"Who’s there?"
Carve away the doubt in your heart and find that persistence is key to effective prayer.
“In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins – not by strength but by persistance.” –H. Jackson Brown
