Comfort and joy… are you like me, having the two words “comfort” and “joy” tied together in your head from having heard them at Christmastime every year since you were born?

The song starts out “God rest ye, merry gentlemen” [though I now change it to “gentle ones”], let nothing you dismay.” The chorus ends with “Oh, tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy, Oh, tidings of comfort and joy” because “Christ our savior was born on Christmas Day to save us all from Satan’s power when we were gone astray.”

My fave version of it is on Simon and Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Waters album full of their marvelous vocal harmonies.

Bridge Over Troubled Waters

So I’m reflecting on both songs, tying them together because a bridge over troubled waters really can bring comfort and joy, right? That’s why I want to tell you about my favorite bridge: my timeline. Maybe it will help you as well.

A business coach gave me this image decades ago. Since then I’ve been imagining the timeline of my life like a giant ruler or tape measure stretching out from the day I was born to the day I die. Right now I’m standing on the number of years I’ve lived as of today.

Look to the Past for Comfort and Joy

Want to join me in your imagination? Look way down to the left to the numbers that mark everything from your childhood year by year. See your teen years, your young adulthood. Let yourself smile as you imagine the sounds of laughter and grief you hear, the faces of thousands of people who have passed through your life up till now. Isn’t it all amazing? You are re-experiencing your comfort and joy.

Now especially look for your accomplishments along the way. See them shining like jewels surrounded by shining bright light. For just a moment, let yourself feel the struggle it took to get each of them — in sports, in relationships, at work, spiritually. I encourage you to take the time to see all of that in your mind’s eye and to feel intense pride, comfort, and joy because you see an abundance of good among the hard things you’ve been through.

Look to Your Future for Comfort and Joy

Now look to the right — to your future starting tomorrow, which you can already imagine the shape of the way you hope the day will go. Look way off into the hazy light-filled distance where the timeline ends.

Now imagine a matching array of sounds and faces and accomplishments all along your future timeline. Imagine each of those years filled as your past was filled.

Hear your pleased laughter and joy as you accomplish your most meaningful goals over those years ahead filled with comfort and joy! Feel the celebrating! Who’s around you and celebrating with you?

See yourself embracing some of the countless experiences and material possessions and travel sites and people of all ages who flow in and out of your future.

Smile big as you see you really did accomplish the goals and 13 riches of life you had desired so deeply. Allow yourself to sink deep into a knowing that this part of your timeline is as full of wonder and blessing as the part that you know has already happened. Allow yourself to believe that because you are here today, doing your best today, that you will continue to do your best every day of those tomorrows and that you will be blessed with the incredible life-well-lived you imagine!

Now stand strongly in this moment. Breathe deep. Are you feeling comfort and joy? Allow yourself to feel your timeline bridging over any swirling waters running deep today and troubling you.

You know the blessings of your timeline up till now and you expand your belief with a deep breath that blessings are already there in your future. Feel the comfort of that? Feel the joy of that? Today is perfect!

Remember to Use Your Imagination

Imagination is one of the ways we can replace stress and worry and troubled relationships that have yet to smooth. This is how we can let go of the angst about all the things undone that need doing and we don’t know how in the world we’re going to manage to do them.

This is how we open ourselves to the amazing abundance of today and let go of fear and upset and the paralysis of analysis!

Our Past is Perfect. Our Future is Perfect

How do I know this is true and real? Well, in Week 22A of the Master Key Experience we explore the implications of thought leader and author Wallace Wattles’ pointing out that we are perfect — we just aren’t complete yet. That week’s presenters talk through these words on a slide and much more. We learn that this is

“the imperative viewpoint… All is right with the world. Nature, society, government, industry are perfect in their present stage… advancing to completion. [We] contemplate all facts of social, political, industrial life from this high point of view. Every human being is good and perfect for where he/she has evolved to. [We] must see all family members, friends, neighbors, acquaintances in this way. My job isn’t to judge or fix what I think is wrong with others. My job is to become the best version of myself.”

Wallace Wattles

These awarenesses have so changed my life for the better! I will never go back to the way things were in my life before. I hope they might help you today as well.

And I really encourage you to apply for a scholarship for the upcoming Master Key Experience where we delve into things like this week after week for six months. We’ll be starting up again the last Sunday of September.

May I ask. If not now, when? If not you, who will propel your life to its best? Whatever is standing in your way has a you-sized lock on it. Please give us a chance to show you how the Master Key can open the door to things that will delight you and create a timeline for the rest of your life that is as full to the brim of all good things!

Thanks for reading!