Drug Dealer Doors

If you’re in the market for a new front door, it can be a daunting task. There are so many different designs to choose from; and then, there are a multitude of security features to take into account. Looking through the brochures, it’s interesting to see how the manufacturers try to combine traditional appearance with modern technology. Here’s an example.

 

This looks like an ordinary wood-panelled door, with conventional door furniture, and even an olde worlde leadlight. In fact, it’s a GRP Composite Door, with a glass reinforced plastic wood grain skin, a solid laminated timber core (or perhaps steel and/or wood reinforced polyurethane), and a multipoint locking system and anti-snap cylinder. The door frame is steel reinforced, and, most importantly, it’s securely anchored in place. In other words, it’s made to look good, but at the same time to withstand the most vigorous of forced entry attacks.

These doors are sometimes seen in none too salubrious neighbourhoods, looking a little out of place in their shabby surroundings. Why are they known as ‘Drug Dealer Doors’? It’s pretty obvious: they will buy you some precious time when officers of the law come calling. An Enforcer ram, in combination with other tools, will still get the door open - but it will take longer.

Of course, the law-abiding citizen can also benefit from the extra security that these doors offer - if you have the money. They are not cheap. And even if you add window locks, burglar alarms and CCTV, there are always ways in which thieves can break in and steal, given sufficient incentive. (Personally, I favour net curtains in all the windows, so that no one can see whether you’ve got anything worth taking.) Also, in this age of the internet, you can have your savings and even your identity stolen by someone half a world away.

No matter how safe and secure we try to make our possessions and our persons, the sad truth is that in this life, in a fallen world, we simply cannot guard against every eventuality. The writer of Proverbs puts it this way: “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.” (Proverbs 27.1) And then, as the writer of Ecclesiastes reminds us, comes death: “the end of all mankind”. That is not the end of the text, though. It continues: “and the living will lay it to heart.” (Ecclesiastes 7.2, my italics.) If you’re reading this right now, I think we can take it that you’re still alive; but, may I ask you: has the inescapable insecurity of this life and the reality of your own mortality ever actually come home to you?

There is a way to deal with doubts and fears today, and to have, as the hymn writer puts it, “bright hope for tomorrow”. What is this way? If you’ve never really considered these things, or if you have and you haven’t yet had a satisfactory answer, then stay on this Salem Chapel site, and click on “Good News”, and then on “Are You An Atheist?” Read on, and then elsewhere in that section. Please feel free to contact the church if you think we can help you: the contact information is there, and the times of services, too.

You can know for a certainty that you have eternal security: that when you step through that door of death, it will not be a door into the darkness, but a door into the light of life and love and joy and peace, in His presence for ever more.

For those who already know that “underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deuteronomy 33.27), may I remind you of the last verse of that fine hymn by Thomas Chisholm, “Great Is Thy Faithfulness”?

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for today, and bright hope for tomorrow,
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!

Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see,
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided -
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!