Permission to Enter – a short story
1 “I tell you the truth, anyone who sneaks over the wall of a sheepfold, rather than going through the gate, must surely be a thief and a robber!2 But the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.4 After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice.5 They won’t follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don’t know his voice.”
6 Those who heard Jesus use this illustration didn’t understand what he meant,7 so he explained it to them: “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep.8 All who came before mes were thieves and robbers. But the true sheep did not listen to them.9 Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures.10 The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.
— Jesus, John 10:1-6
We can trust Jesus, because he alone enters through the sheep gate as the Good Shepherd. Imagine the walls in this story; they are the defenses we erect in our lives to filter out the bad and keep in the good. It is the membrane of our emotional and spiritual hearts. Walls are a good thing! Most sane people don’t want just anything entering into their sacred garden in their heart. It is the place where one’s deepest secrets, regrets, fears and hopes reside.
So many live with broken walls allowing thrives of all kinds to jump the fence to kill and destroy the most important thing to them, their heart. Abusive boyfriends, commanding bosses, marketing and advertising, conceited religious teachers, and more find the cracks in your wall and penetrate unwelcome into the darkest corners of your life.
Only Jesus has the right to enter through the gate. He comes in directly, not slithering past your defenses. Your guard with him is still up- you’ve been burned before. But he has a different quality to him, no one has ever walked so honestly through “the gate” before; its always been through cracks and crevices- sneaking in without notice or invitation.
It is almost as if he was both the key and the door to your very heart- the longing and the fulfillment simultaneously.
Learning to follow Jesus out of the confines of your broken-down heart with it’s crumbling walls is the process of spiritual formation. Jesus has every intention of meeting you where you are, but loves you too much to leave you there.
Instead of chasing and driving you out the door of your cynical, skeptical, fear-filled heart, he begins to speak to you. He begins to woo you and convince you that he is worth trusting- that his voice is one you can listen to.
Others have entered your heart in the past, and they too were interested in getting you outside your walls of safety so they could take advantage of you; exploiting your beauty, taking your money, or simply adding you as another notch on their belt. Each time you fell for it, you felt dirty, cheapened, commoditized. Once past your walls, they terrorize you and force you through your gate and out into the dangerous wild- you just kept running and running…until you looked back and found yourself once again, alone…vulnerable.
Tricked again, your heart is pillaged.
Jesus is dramatically different- he speaks to you, coaxes you- stands at the doorway of your heart, getting to know the real you. He doesn’t seem interested with pillaging your heart- he wants to lead you out of it’s confining walls. You step carefully toward him, he is not chasing you around the pen, driving you and beating you. He continues to speak to you as you follow him- he’s the leader here- and it is so comforting to hear his voice speaking to you! You and he are on a grand adventure now! Great vistas and pastures are yours to delight in together! And now more sheep begin to join the flock- strange, different-looking sheep, so different that the only thing you have in common is your Shepherd.
This is a story of overcoming and transformation, about learning to listen to a voice that loves you rather than myriad others that want your destruction. Learning to listen and learn Jesus’ voice and trust him enough to follow him is the most critical skill to learn in this life. Nothing else even comes close.
priest, and 
priest 8:46 pm on May 15, 2010 Permalink
thanks for the call to engage the local.
as for the person of peace, right now it probably just means they’re as addicted to their iphone as me!
t
Mark 9:29 am on May 16, 2010 Permalink
well said T. maybe a great way to set up incarnational engagement would be to set up iPhone Anonymous meetups…only done online through the mobile web.
priest 6:23 pm on May 16, 2010 Permalink
i’m in.
sent from my iPhone
seriously though, i’ve begun to explore the world of Foursquare and I appreciate how it calls us to ‘step off the treadmill’ and enter into new arenas. i honestly agree that it could facilitate new relationships that otherwise wouldn’t happen. that’s what interests me–it has an element of incarnation that often other social media lack. interested to see how this new social media unfolds.