My wife and I visited China a few years ago while seeing our daughter and her family in Japan. While in Beijing, we toured the stunning and immense Imperial Palace, or what they call “The Forbidden City.”

As we walked through the grounds and buildings, I noticed that at each outside door entrance we had a step over a door threshold or sill of 9”-12”. Our guide said it was to keep the bad spirits out and the good spirits in. Apparently, the spirits can’t step over anything, but it also would have made it difficult for the handicapped.

But kidding aside, ever since that day, I have seriously thought about the concept of Chinese door thresholds. Thinking to myself, “what raised 'door sills' do I have in my spiritual life?” Seriously, what habits, what beliefs, what ideas have I picked up that simply do nothing for my walk with Christ? What do I do that simply is not working, not helping, or not benefiting my spiritual life?

As we mature in Christ, as we get to know our heavenly Father, as we grow in grace, perhaps there are a few things we can clean up or clean out to simply make our spiritual life more effective and more efficient. What do you think?

—Dr. Bill Pritchard