In the Bible, Jesus never promised that the door to the things we most desire is an open door. The policy of the open door is not in the Gospels. Christ brought, rather, the challenge of the closed door. He said, "Knock, and the door will open." It isn't open to begin with. None of the things we want most are within easy reach. None of them are waiting for us through open doors. We must not only knock, but often besiege the door and endure a long wait before it opens for us. One of the first laws of life is this: you must seek, you must want and then you must eagerly and patiently knock.

It seems strange that the things we want most are not furnished ready-made. If God is good and loving, why didn't He meet our deepest wants with open doors to them? The world might have been made so that all that you would need to do would be to go through an open door, and what you want would be there waiting for you.

The apocalypses all take the easy line of expectation. Everything is done for us without any effort on our part. In the Revelation, the Apocalypse says "behold, I set before you an open door," but the true blessing is in the slow, hard way of spiritual progress. The beatitudes emphasize the blessedness of wanting, not of easy attainment. The main trouble with the biblical scribes and Pharisees is that they didn't have any remaining wants!