Has your door of happiness closed?

When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.
--Helen Keller

Have you ever known this to be true? Have you ever seen an example of someone who immediately finds the open door vs. someone who never does? When a 'door of happiness' closes it is so easy to focus on the loss of happiness, but it is so true, that God will always open up something else. Sometimes He closes things simply in order to open up a door to greater happiness, other times it is closed through circumstances, or wrong choices, by either ourselves or others. In this case God is always able to bring the good out of the bad. This closure can be something big (a loved one's death or sickness, etc.) or small (the end of a youth camp, etc.), but the principle is always the same.There is always another door opened, available for us to walk through. 

When was the last time you had a 'door of happiness' closed in your life? What was your response? Did you ever find the one that opened? Maybe you've experienced death of a close family member, abuse from a parent or relative, divorce, moving away from family and friends to a strange place, etc. All of these things have taken place in my life, and each one of them was a 'door of happiness' closing on me. Now I don't believe that it was God who closed these doors, I believe they were just a result of a fallen world, but in looking back on my life I can clearly see the doors that God opened up for me. I can see how God not only brought me through these things, but brought me through a stronger man than I would have been. Through these events He taught me to not focus on the 'closed door', but to always look for the open door.

Now at age 26, I can say that, thus far, I am successful in following God's plan for my life. I am happily married, I'm a licensed minister and head of a newly developed youth ministry, and am a manager in a mental health group home. On top of that, I have had the opportunity to travel to 13 countries, on four continents. I have led teams on foreign outreaches and organized the outreaches themselves. This is not to brag, or to build myself up, on the contrary, it is to show you what God has done in my life! He has brought me to all the successes in my life. He has delivered me from fear, and strengthened me to take on new challenges, even when I did not necessarily feel I like I was up for the challenge. All I had to do was, keep my focus off the closed doors and  follow Him!