There is a reason certain doors appear in our lives more than once.
I am not talking only about physical doors, though those matter too. I am talking about the invitations we sense long before we understand them. The curiosity that lingers. The question that refuses to go away. The feeling that something is calling to us from just beyond the edge of what feels safe.
In my stories, doors are rarely neutral. They represent choice. Awareness. Consequence. Once opened, something changes, even if the character tries to pretend it has not.
In real life, we like to believe curiosity is harmless. We are taught that knowledge is always good and that every question deserves an answer. But anyone who has lived long enough knows this is not always true. Some knowledge comes with weight. Some answers rearrange the room you thought you understood. And some doors, once opened, do not close the way they used to.
I have always believed that God gives us discernment before He gives us explanation. That quiet resistance you feel when you are about to step somewhere you should not is not fear in the way the world defines it. It is warning. It is mercy. It is protection disguised as hesitation.
This is why I do not spell everything out in my books. I trust my readers to recognize the moment when a character crosses a line that cannot be uncrossed. I trust them to feel the shift in the air when something unseen enters the story. Evil does not always announce itself. Often it waits for permission.
What fascinates me, both as a writer and as a believer, is how often we sense the danger and choose to ignore it anyway. We convince ourselves that we are strong enough. Smart enough. Careful enough. But strength does not come from curiosity. It comes from obedience. And wisdom often looks like walking away without needing to know what was on the other side.
There are doors God opens, and when He does, no force can keep them shut. Those doors bring clarity, growth, and purpose, even when the path beyond them is difficult. But there are other doors that exist only as tests. Not every opportunity is an invitation from Heaven.
If there is one thing I hope readers take from my work, it is this. Pay attention to what resists you. Pay attention to the moments when something inside you says no without giving a reason. Faith does not require you to open every door. Sometimes faith is trusting God enough to leave it closed.
Because once you step through the wrong doorway, the darkness does not need to chase you. You have already invited it in.