#4 of 4 Doors That Are Not Locked
The first three in this series are the door of forgiveness , the door of friendship, and the door of peace.
The assumption behind this series is that we struggle for years and bang on these doors only to find that in the end they are not locked. The resistance does not come from God. The resistance we experience in our pursuit of forgiveness, friendship, and peace arises largely from within us…from our beliefs, from our own thoughts. For those of us who learn and fight through our own demons, usually with the help of others, the unlocked door comes as a relief and a surprise.
And so we come to door #4: Joy.
Joy looks like peace with a contented smile. Like the previous doors, joy is a decision. Please keep in mind that the idea of simplicity behind each of these is not one that is trite or light. Rather, as Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but for the simplicity on the other side of complexity, I would give my whole life.”
So it is with joy. And the choice of joy looks like this.
Joy chooses…
…the beauty of the present moment over problems of the past or future,
…the best interpretation of the situation, not the worst,
…gratitude for the smallest things,
…a loose grip on people and things and control,
…the simplicity on the other side of complexity.
May you knock at the doors of forgiveness, friendship, peace, and joy and find them unlocked and open.
Worth Repeating
Don’t cry because it’s over; smile because it happened.
-Dr. Seuss
