Wednesday, February 2, 2011

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!

5 comments:

  1. Good post! :)
    One comment: Having an example of a closed door in your life, where you decided not to get stuck but rather focus on what God has next for you, and talk about that experience a little bit more would be good to get the whole picture, especially for someone who doesn't know you well.
    I appreciate you, man! Hope to see you again someday and until then - may God continue to bless and keep you as he has this far!
    Love & peace, Chris

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great post Chris. It is so true that a lot of people spend so much time looking at the closed door they can't see the open door. Keep leading and serving God.

    Dan

    ReplyDelete
  3. We are built to bear the pain and disappointment life throws at us. So long as we accept that life is like this, we can't be crushed by failure or loss. We know the sun will rise on another day.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yes and sometimes we get stuck in the darkness of the night and close our eyes to bear the pain, but we forget to open them again and miss that the sun has risen again.

    ReplyDelete