When one door closes another door opens, but it can be Hell in the Hallway

When one door closes, another one opens, but it can be hell in the hallway. 

The hallway is that place between jobs, between relationships, during a major illness or after a permanent change or crisis. Life as you know it has ended, and you’re not sure what’s coming next.

. . . . . 

The hallway in contrast is marked by a definite door closing, an unmistakable shift in circumstances. It’s a change that initially might beat you down but inevitably calls you higher. This experience is an opportunity for nothing less than spiritual transformation.

. . . . . 

All hallways begin with something that has ended, and the experience might look and feel like profound loss at first, might seem as if your life has gone terribly awry.

But change is the only way life can be made better, and “better”often requires leaving behind what was merely good.

. . . . . 

[Take] fighter pilot Charlie Plumb, who was shot down and held as a prisoner of war in Vietnam for six years. He first considered it a colossal waste of time. Yet years after he was freed, he said it was a “beautiful gift.”

A gift!

Trapped in an 8 by 8 foot cell, not knowing whether he would live from day to day. He said nothing could have taught him more.

“There’s great value in getting blown out of the sky once in a while,” Plumb said in a speech. “There’s great value in that wakeup call that forces you and me to re-examine the way we’re doing business. Said a little differently, adversity is a horrible thing to waste.”

(emphasis mine)

Excerpted from Hell in the Hallway, Light at the Door: How to Move Gracefully through Change into Renewed and Abundant Life by Ellen Debenport