Open Door

"Imagine yourself floating in a foggy environment. You can see only one thing in front of you. It’s an open doorway to somewhere.

Without knowing anything else, including where the doorway leads, or what your needs and desires are at the moment, or even why you are in this foggy environment at all, give your first reaction to this question:

Do you choose to pass through the doorway?"

Ah, the doorways of life. What is your instinct in a situation like this? Do you prefer to stick with the safe and known, or venture into the nebulous unknown? All things being equal, will you opt for change and movement or will you choose to stay where you are?

I stole this question from this post on The Dilbert Blog. After asking that initial question, the author followed up with this post in which he suggested that women and men tend to view this situation differently. He tries to conclude that women would generally prefer to stay while men would generally prefer to use the door. I don't intend to make a comment regarding the battle of the sexes, but it is a nice picture about how we approach decisions in our lives.

Do we prefer to stick with the safe and unfulfilling job or do we take the chance and aim for something new and better? Do we wait for that girl or guy to come along and sweep us off of our feet or do we take a few steps towards somebody that we might like? Do we expect our friends to make plans for us or do we invite others to join us? Do we wait for God to speak to us before we move or do we look for God to speak as we're moving?

It's about passivity versus action. There may be a number of reasons to stay where we are, and there may be a number of reasons to get moving. It's easy enough to build a case to stay, if that's what you really want. And it's easy to enough to convince ourselves to move, if that's what we really want. I say...

"Nothing ventured, nothing gained."