Two friends walking from church, gets to their street and sees their other friends under the red street light partying (drinking/smoking/dancing).
One says to the other.
Blue you coming to join them?
Blue says no I’ve got stuff to do.
Like what? He says.
Well… I’ve got to pray and study.
Pray and study! You would rather do that?
Yes! Blue says. Let me give you some advice my friend, always put God first.
So the friends went separate ways.
He then pulls a massive black coat out his bag puts it on, with his black and white tam and joins the party. His arrival is celebrated by his friends but they quickly get back to the party.
One friend Yellow, asks him how he’s feeling and he lets him know he’s still a little sore from that work out they did yesterday.
His friend laughs and let’s him know that that’s the cost of progress,
Just make sure you get ample rest tonight, because we’re back at it again tomorrow. Says Silver, joining the conversation.
They shared a laugh attracting the attention of another in the group.
Who says, you guys go to the gym all the time but I bet you can’t do this! As he picks up his partner erotically dancing.
As the night continues two of his friends start to argue, the size difference between them is comical.
Someone shouts out that they should stop it and says that the short one just doesn’t like the tall one because he’s too proud.
How would your pride cause you not to like someone? He asked.
It’s because proud men don’t like to look up. He’s told by Orange.
This infuriated the small one more who swung for the other, but the fight was quickly separated and the friends carried on with the party.
Further on in the night the music was interrupted by a scream, one of the girls was terrified of another friends little dog.
The group laughed, look at the size of your problem compared to the size of you. Said Pink.
It’s not my fault my mother was scared of dogs too the girl said trying to justify herself.
The group was passing around a spliff, and when it was finished Green suggested that he should build another.
I don’t want to. He said. That would take too much effort.
To accomplish anything good you have to make an effort. Suggested Green.
But I’m not that good at it. He replied.
All the more reason to practice that is how you’ll get good. Says Green.
I know you’re only saying this because you don’t want to do it. He says to Green.
Green smiles knowing he’s been figured out.
An old lady and her blind son Black happens to walk by the group. He notices but the rest of the group pays them little attention, until the boy trips on a rock and drops his bag with their groceries on the floor. The group erupts in laughter but he quickly approaches them and helps gather the items.
He says to Black it must be hard being blind.
It’s hard but there’s perks when one sense is dulled the others are heightened so when my mum cooks this food for me it tastes substantially better than what you would experience. Says Black.
He smiles, inspired by Blacks optimism.
As the party is coming to an end he notices Purple’s mum coming home late from work.
Purple was like a little brother to him, one of the youths that grew up on the street and was well liked by everyone as the boy showed promise and was very talented.
However Purple’s family was poor and his mum could barely provide for him, the group was aware of Purple’s struggle and discussed how unfair it was.
There must be a solution to the problem he pondered.
One friend said to figure out that problem you would have to be as enlightened as the Buddha.
This peaked his interest. So how did the Buddha achieve his enlightenment? He asked.
Well he declared that he would meditate under a tree and not leave the spot until he achieved it.
I must try it! He proclaimed.
The group burst out into laughter.
Rainbow wants to achieve enlightenment! They teased. Calling him the name his ex girlfriend use to call him. Which he missed dearly and they knew this was a sore spot.
He left the group to attempt accomplishing this task, picking an old tree nearby to start meditating under.
In the transcendence of meditation he is transported to another realm.
He hears the loud sound of a door unlocking.
However it’s dark and he cannot see much, as he stumbles around on what seems to be a white powdered floor, he bumps into many things (symbols- Mercedes, Ferrari, Lamborghini, McDonald’s, Xbox, Sony, Netflix…)
He feels around and finds a rocking chair that he sits in, as he’s rocking he’s worrying about how he’s gunna find a way through this dark room; and what was that sound earlier?
Is there something else here!?
After a while he realises that the rocking and the worrying was something to do, but it was getting him nowhere so he gets back up and continues to stumble through the room.
He gets distracted by a familiar smell and subsequently trips over a plant pot, as he is on the floor getting back up he looks behind him and notices a light in the opposite direction.
He then heads towards the light with purpose, getting there and entering a new room; this room was a blank room and he was confused.
So what first?
He thought to himself, triggering a flashback to Blue telling him to always put God first.
So he says a quick prayer thanking God for him making it out of that horrible dark room and now asks for guidance for what is to come next. As he ends his prayer he hears a pleasant voice that says it will be his guide and that he should choose from the two doors that were now in-front of him.
A plain blue door, or a beautiful rainbow coloured door with a complicated locking system.
He remembered his good friend Blue who’s advice served him well and decided to go through the plain blue door.
As he pushed the door open going into the next room he hears the voice of his ex girlfriend calling his name, this startles him; waking him from his trance.
He was back under the tree now looking around for his ex who was nowhere to be seen, he realised the error in his way took of his massive coat and tam (not noticing a long blue lock that was now on this once bald head) and returned to his meditation.
This time when he entered the dark room he did not worry, he avoided the obstacles and quickly headed to the light; then through the blue door.
In this room there was a projection being played on the wall next to a big red door which needed a key.
The projection was playing a first person view of his friends at one of their regular parties.
He also found a remote that he could use to switch perspectives, as he was browsing from friend to friend he realised a button he could press that he could access the inner thoughts of each friend as they conversed and partied.
This amused him for a long while but then came to the realisation that the conversation was about the same stuff they would always talk about and it grew tedious; loosing interest his focus strayed to the red doors key hole.
But as he was to have his next thought, a menacing voice shouted. Look at that!
His friends were all now dancing eccentrically together, this regained his attention and amused him. But as he was using the remote to change perspectives, he noticed it was the shape of the key hole. Realising this he left the projection and opened the red door entering the next room.
As he walks into the next room he notices the yellow door on the other side of the room behind large metal bars that blocked him.
The voice of his guide then said. “You have been training for this and now you are ready”.
I’ve been training for this?
He said confused. I don’t know what you mean, these are metal bars how am I to get past them.
Most of my training has been in the gym with Yellow. As he says his friends name he remembers the colour of the door ahead and started to think.
As he goes to take off his shirt, the menacing voice says. What do you think your doing, you think your strong enough to bend metal?
He ignores the voice and takes off his shirt revealing a ripped body he didn’t even seem to know he had, this gave him confidence and he bent the bars with ease making his way past the obstacle and through the yellow door.
Now in the next room he was confronted by an orange brick wall.
The menacing voice said sarcastically, go on then Mr. Muscle!
He stepped up to the wall and began to swing, hitting the wall with everything he had. This damaged the wall but he was no closer to getting past it.
In his frustration he asked. What shall I do?
His guide replied “To conquer this obstacle you must let go of your pride”.
My pride! I have never thought of myself as proud, maybe it’s these me muscles do I have to give them up?
Or?
As he stares at the orange wall he remembers, “proud men don’t like to look up”. When he glanced up at the top of the wall he noticed it was not much taller than him, so gripped the cracks in the wall and climbed over with little effort.
Walking through the orange door on the other side, into the next room.
In the next room was a similar brick wall but this one was pink and he made sure to look up but noticed this one was considerably taller as he could not even see the top.
The menacing voice said to him. This wall is way too tall for you to climb.
This almost motivated him, as he started his climb getting higher and higher till when he looked down he could no longer see the floor.
The menacing voice used this opportunity to tell him how scared he should be of falling, but he continued; while being mocked by the menacing voice the whole way,
He did this until he was exhausted and fell all the way to the bottom.
The fall hurt and the menacing voice made fun of him telling him that this problem was way too big for him!
Hearing this plus the colour of the wall it jogged his memory.
It’s not the size of the problem, it’s the size of you!
He said to himself, picking himself up off the floor.
As he concentrated he started to grow. As he grew the wall got smaller and smaller until he could simply step over it and make his was through the pink door that was on the other side.
This room was similar to the last with a great big green wall. So he immediately started to make himself bigger than the wall, however he noticed that the bigger he got so did the wall.
The menacing voice mocked him suggesting that there was no way he was going to figure this one out.
So he ask the guide. The guide said to him that, he should use what he learned from the past tasks to figure out the solution to this one.
He took a moment to think reflecting on the past obstacles and what he learned. He thought to himself that even though he had to ignore the foolish ways of his friends to get past the red door, the solutions to the other doors where from wise advice those same friends gave him.
So what did my friend Green teach me?
He said to himself looking at the colour of the wall. Green is a wise man and taught me many things all the years I have known him but his actions always fell short of his words and I remember him being very lazy. He wouldn’t even want to put the effort into building his own spliff!
Ahh!
Effort!
With this realisation he squatted as if he was charging up for a massive jump. As he did so the menacing voice told him, you know the landing on the other side is gunna hurt right?
However he took of into the air anyway leaping over the wall, the feeling of clearing the wall was satisfying; however the decent on the other side was hard and fast sending him crashing to the floor.
The menacing voice laughed, however he got up and limped slowly through the green door.
As he entered the next room his pain from the fall went away, but as he approached another massive wall the task seemed daunting; however this wall had a box in front of it.
The menacing voice whispered. Get to it then! You know what you need to do.
As he walked pass the box he touched the wall and took a moment…
He then stepped back and sat on the box. The menacing voice said loudly what are you doing? You don’t have time for rest! Have you given up on your goal?
He ignored the voice and smiled reflecting on the past tests and how proud he was of himself for getting this far, and how funny it was that the didn’t even realise that his past was preparing him for this present moment. As he thought this, the box broke under him.
The menacing voice laughed and said I told you! Now get to jumping!
He calmly got up and started sorting the pieces into a neat pile.
What are you doing? said the menacing voice.
As he was sorting the pile he realised that there was something under the rubble, there was something in the box. He discovered that it was a pair of wings, he smiled and put on his wings; charged up his stance and made the massive leap over the wall. This time flapping his wings just before reaching the ground and landing majestically on the other side, and going through the door.
He was shocked at what he found in the next room, it was chaos!
The small room was filled with items/symbols from pop culture with a rocking chair in the middle. He realised that this room was similar to the first dark room however this time everything was visible. He was confused as he couldn’t even see a possible way out.
So if I can’t see the way out…
He thought of his optimistic blind friend he encountered in his past.
He folded in his wings and closed his eyes. As he did so a third eye on his forehead opened, which could clearly see the dark pathway leading to the exit on the other side of the room.
The next room was surprisingly the same as the second room a blank room with the two doors. The plain blue door which was now open or the rainbow door with the complex lock.
He approached the rainbow door analysing the locks he noticed each lock was represented by a colour and they just so happen to be the colours of all the door he had to unlock to get back here.
As he put this together, he now realised for the first time that he was no longer bald; he now had long coloured locks representing each coloured lock. He figured out that he had earned them from each previous room and they were the key to this door. So he opened the door and enter the next room.
This room was a dark empty room with a gold door at the other end, that looked like it needed a key to open it. As he approached the door, the guide showed him an image behind him of a childhood friend he hadn’t seen for a long time; this friend too was seeking enlightenment however he was bald stuck at the rainbow door trying to open it.
The menacing voice said, at lest you are better than that fool; ignore him and carry on through the gold door. What you seek is near, revealing a black key he could use to open it.
Without hesitation he turned from the door and leapt through the portal behind him leading him to his friend, as he approached his friend he called out to him.
His friend was distracted by the door but eventually turned and greeted his old friend, who he barely recognised as he has changed so much. He told his friend that it is through the plain blue door he will find the path that will lead him to eventually being able to open this door.
His friend thanked him for the advice, but before leaving through the blue doors he returned to him.
Oh! I almost forgot, the guide gave me this key and told me to give it to the person that helps me progress pass this room revealing a white key for the golden door. He thanked his friend and they went their separate ways, his friend though the plain blue door and him though the rainbow door.
Which this time led to a brightly lit room with the same golden door, he used the key which he obtained from his friend and entered the next room.
In the next room was no door just a black mirror. He approached it looking at himself and seeing the metamorphosis he went through, and he was impressed with what he had achieved.
Then the menacing voice said. Was it worth it? Isn’t this what you sought? You can leave now knowing you accomplished something!
He humbly acknowledged the voice but before the left, he thanked the guide.
As he did so the guide said. What about the final room? This is not a mirror, but an open door it was opened the moment you decided to start this journey. With this information he stepped through the open door.
On the other side he found a briefcase, which he opened; revealing what he sought; and he was pleased.
The menacing voice once again spoke to him. This time with a more familiar tone. “Congratulations!” It said.
Why where you so adamant on me failing? He asked the voice.
“This is my purpose”. It replied. Not only to discourage you, but it was I who built all those obstacles. But you have to admit, without me you wouldn’t have achieved all this!
You are right and I thank you. I have also figured out who you are. Said the enlightened one.
Have you! Said the voice as it stepped out of the shadows to reveal itself, a familiar figure wearing a black coat and a black and white tam.
The enlightened one awoke under the tree, still possessing what he had obtained on that journey. As he returned to his friends who where still out partying, they all where stunned by the change he had gone though.
So what was the solution then?
Did you figure it out?
Yes! Purple is the solution! He represents the promising future we should look forward to. The pressure he is experiencing will turn him into a diamond, that will light the path for the future generations.
If we guide him properly!
Each of us will have to go though our own pilgrimage to give him the best chance. Learning new things on the way, as we fellowship nightly we should then concise our knowledge to pass it on.