Hinge People Part III
What compels a hinge person?
In truth — they are most compelled by LOVE.
Love for what is right and good and true, honorable and excellent and life-giving.
Love for others. Love for their children and grandchildren.
Love for God and love for what flowed down from the cross.
When a hinge person recognizes a place of darkness, they choose to think of the lives of those around them rather than themselves — love begins to stir them towards the light — towards freedom. A self-centered person will not become a hinge person. They can’t. Because all they think about is s-e-l-f. And sadly, a self-centered person of low character, will not want anyone else to have anything better than what they have had. So they will not work to defeat destructive behaviors and they will not put their shoulder to a door to push towards the Light.
Oh but a hinge person is compelled by love and is willing to push against old ways in order to welcome the Light. A hinge person is compelled by love.
Who benefits from a hinge person embracing God's invitation to join Him in opening the heavy door that has held them in darkness?
The first person to benefit is the hinge persons themselves. But let’s be brutally fair here, the hinge person will almost always incur criticism as well. Since the hinge person is resisting what has been, those that have chosen the dark side of the “easy”, familiar door — rarely if ever approve of the disruption. And there’s always the reality that while God invites the hinge person to join Him in opening the door, the Holy Spirit might also join in the work that’s happening and bring some level of conviction to the person or persons who have been fine with the closed door. There are people that like the element of hiding in the darkness of the closed door. They can continue to do what they do in secret, selfish indulgence. But when someone else wants to open the door, exposing the darkness and letting the Light flood in — conviction can come when things are uncovered and can not remain hidden.
The hinge person cares not to convict anyone else. Hinge people rarely want to point their finger at another. For in truth, their hands and hearts are busy reaching for the Light.
So while the hinge person is the first to benefit, the hinge person also must be willing to endure the ridicule and rejection that might come when the Light shines in. (1 John 3:13)
But for the hinge person, the most important person(s) that will benefit from their shoulder to the door — is the freedom it will give to others and the generations that come after them.
Will the effects of their willingness to push against rusted hinges, last for longer than their own lifetime?
Yes indeed! It’s a generationally impacting event. The sins of the previous family line have been exposed and overcome as they were exposed to the cleansing blood of Jesus and this happens when nothing is allowed to remain hidden. How could something ever be cleaned if it is covered up. You can’t wash your body if you keep your clothes on. You can’t change a baby’s dirty diaper if you don’t first remove the one that is soiled. Only in the exposing and cleaning of the babe’s skin, can you truly care for it and then put a nice new diaper on. The new, clean diaper will protect them both from diaper rash and from outside harm. So it is with hinge people. I guess you could, according to this analogy, say a hinge person is willing to work and clean up the messiest of messes — in order to care for and protect what is vulnerable and precious to them.
In this way, the work they do, will effect the generations that come after them for an innumerable number of years. Those who follow them will have a better understanding of what is right and good, excellent and life-giving — and when we can begin our lives from that platform, we have a tendency to pass it forward in greater degrees.
Erik Erikson describes this by saying that all people will pass through 8 stages of socio-development in their lifetime. The final stage is described as a period of Integrity versus Despair. Hinge people can finish their life with a great sense of integrity, for they know that they have lived for the benefit, care, love and protection of those around them. Conversely, those who have refused to open doors out of darkness for themselves and their family, will most likely face the end of their days feeling despair. They know deep within themselves, they have not done all they could for the sake of what is good and beneficial to others. They have lived a more self-centered life and perhaps landed in fields of bitterness. These people come to the end of their life and realize… time’s up, they don’t get a redo, and their chance to live up in better ways has passed… and they despair over the loss of what could have been if only...
Hinge people come to the end of their lives feeling peace, freedom, love, and integrity. This gives hope and encouragement to those who follow after them — to live likewise.
Are you a hinge person?
You might very well be a hinge person. You might even now feel the invitation to embrace God’s invitation to do some wonderful work alongside Him. Hingepeople do their work tucked underneath the very arm of God. It is God who will open the door — with the person who has “kept His Word and not denied His Name”. God will allow them to feel the rusty hinges give way, the door move, and the Light come flooding in. Ahhh there’s little in this life that can compare to that amazing feeling — being at work, under the arm of God, and feeling Light on your face. Light is the antidote to darkness.
Who has put shoulder to door, at the call of Jesus, and made rusty hinges m-o-v-e in your life?
I’ll leave you with this very important question to ponder. Do you have a hingeperson in your life? Do you have more than one? It’s beautiful to be able to recognize them. To appreciate them. Remember, they work under the arm of God, not expecting to be noticed.
Personally, i have many hinge people in my life — and their work has been profoundly instrumental in allowing me the joy of reaching for MORE LIGHT and resisting firmly those who insist on trying to bring darkness. I have hinge-people I’ve never met. Imagine that. Corrie TenBoom, Ruth Bell Graham, Elisabeth Eliot — I’ve never met them. But they helped push open doors that let more Light into my life.
My mother and father are hinge people. I’ve watched them grow in God and reach out of some hard places and step into more Light. My preacher grandfather and his wife, they were hinge people for me. They were not perfect (hinge people aren’t trying to be perfect), but for me they lived in a way that compelled me towards God. My husband is a hinge person. He chose God’s way. I’ve watched him be criticized for it. He still chose the Light... I have been blessed with amazing mentors who are all beautiful hinge people — Jackie, Sandra, and Carolyn (who is already in Heaven cheering us all on). These ladies have held my hand as we together put shoulder to door under our Father’s arm.
Isaiah gives us the very essence of the work of hinge people...
“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captive and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion — to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor. They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.” Isaiah 61:1-4
Hinge people make the world a better place
- they make sure the Light gets in.
