YouTube

Hey, all you fellow introverts, I may just be chatting with you this morning. This past week, reading on FB of a craftsman, who, while working in a house, became overcome with fumes and hospitalized, I recalled times I had used oil or lacquer based paint or combustion-power equipment inside an enclosed space. I remember well that awfulness of being overcome with the accumulating vapors. The instinctive reaction is “I have to open a window.” Although especially true of melancholy introverts, I suspect it may be true of all folks. What? The fact that, when we inwardly are troubled by things, wrestling with a dilemma, hurting from an offense, struggling with temptation, doubts, or weakness, agonizing over a decision, mulling a perplexity—whatever--, the fumes of inner turmoil build, the distress thickens, the despairing thoughts fog, filling our inner being, choking our joy, fumigating our faith. Before we are completely overcome, we must open a window. Sharing what you are feeling, thinking, agonizing and despairing over, or struggling with, is an open window that dissipates the increasing fumes that suffocate the soul intoxicating it with hopelessness and despair. Fortunate is that one who has a spouse, a friend, or a confidant with whom he can share the deepest conflicts of the enclosed room of his inner being. That one, who will listen and love and provide a place to lean, is a true open window of the soul. Usually, we first think of windows as the aperture through which we let something in. “I’ll open the window and let in some fresh air.” But, windows are also the opening through which we let something out. We burn the bacon. We say, “Open that window. We got to get this smoke and smell out of here.” The Psalms are so loved, I believe, because they are an open window to our souls. The Psalms are unique in the Word of God. The other books of the Bible are the Spirit-inspired Words of God to humanity. The Psalms are the Spirit-inspired words of humanity to God. The Psalms give us an inspired way to express the deepest emotions of our soul to God. Many are a window to let the fumes of the troubled mind out. Our prayers need a window. Without an open window our praying becomes our circuitous talking to ourselves and not to God. The Psalmist admonished us to “pour out your hearts before” God (Ps. 62:8). Put another way he said, “Open the window of your heart and let out the fumes.” Today, we call it venting. The need to vent is a need for an open window. To entrap Daniel as he practiced his devotion to God, the decree had been authored and enacted that a person who petitioned anyone other than the king would be thrown to the lions. Knowing this, Daniel went home and prayed at his usual time and in his customary manner—facing an open window. He would not close the window to escape detection and incrimination; he did not leave it open in ostentatious defiance. Why, then, did Daniel “open” the window when he prayed? Biblically, it had something to do with an unimpeded trajectory to Jerusalem. But, could it have not also been because he needed to let out some soul-suffocating fumes through his prayers to God. Perhaps, it was because the room was stuffy. But, maybe his soul was choking. He had to open the window.

Why Did Daniel Open The Window?

Contact

Follow Us