“Knock It Off” – A United Church of Christ StillSpeaking Daily Devotional by The Rev. Kaji Douša

Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and dine with you, and you with me. To the one who conquers I will give a place with me on my throne, just as I myself conquered and sat down with my Abba on God’s throne. Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.” – Revelation 3:20-22 (as translated by Wilda C. Gafney, Year A) 

 I’ve been called tenderheaded and hardheaded in the same breath. 

Tenderheaded when it came to getting my hair done. Hardheaded about…well, just about everything else. 

It’s not the kind of hardheadedness that refuses to learn. It’s the kind that refuses to move. I come by it honestly, I promise. My dad’s version once led us into a literal ditch, during a storm, in the pitch black, at a rundown amusement park in North Carolina. He insisted on driving out before the rain let up. You can imagine what happened next. 

That’s the thing about stubbornness: it can land you stuck in a field with your wheels spinning and no light in sight. And we all get stuck. 

Sometimes it’s grief or fear. Sometimes it’s habit or pride or shame. But sooner or later, we all find ourselves in one of life’s muddy ditches, knowing we need to change but unable to will ourselves to start. 

Which is why I’m so moved by Mel Robbins’s “5-4-3-2-1 liftoff” theory. It’s a way to break through paralysis by counting yourself into movement, into launch, into doing the thing that resistance wants to delay. 

It’s also a kind of spiritual practice. When we’re stuck and the Spirit is knocking, sometimes the most faithful thing we can do is count down. To act. To answer the knock. 

Because Jesus is still standing there. Not banging. Not barging. Just…knocking. Inviting us to open up, to be fed, to be changed. 

You don’t have to feel ready. You don’t have to get it all together first.  

Just count with me: 5… 4… 3… 2… 1…  

Open the door. 

Prayer
Thank you for knocking on the door. Thank you for helping me to open it. Even now, God. Amen.

The “StillSpeaking Daily Devotional” series is produced by The United Church of Christ.