Luke breaks his father's heart by not taking over the family business. Instead he takes his trust fund and goes traveling with his friends. He does not listen to himself or others about these friends. In the end he loses everything including his self-respect.

I like the way this is written. Short stories of what is happening with Luke after a chapter beginning of his diary. From the beginning you know how the story will go but I was interested in how he would rebound. I am glad there were people who taught him and stood by him on his way back up. I also liked the lessons he learned and how he applied those lessons.

This is a story that will stay with me long after I close these covers. So much is here to reflect on.

Kimberly, a divorced would-be romance author, is trying to deal with her divorce and learning that her dad is sick. Christmas is coming and her dad wants her to go to a writing conference as his gift to her. She goes where she meets Zeke who becomes her writing partner for the conference. They share secrets but not the whole truth.

I enjoyed this book. I liked the characters. I liked Kimberly's father. He is so upbeat and full of life. Kimberly has a lot to deal with and she is not equipped to deal with it all. Trust is hard for her. Zeke also has to learn to trust. I liked watching their interactions. I also figured out the secret fairly early on. While the Hallmark movie was good, the book is so much better.

The Four Doors is Evans’s message to those who seek inspiration in their lives. It began as a talk he gave on the spur of the moment, and over the course of ten years, it has evolved into a message he has shared with successful business people, students, and even addicts and prisoners. It includes stories his readers have told him, stories about great achievers who overcame hardships, and stories about his own struggle growing up in a large family with financial difficulties and a suicidal mother, and about his diagnosis of Tourette’s Syndrome later in life. These inspiring stories are woven through his identification and careful explanation of the four doors to a more fulfilling life:

BELIEVE THERE’ S A REASON YOU WERE BORN

FREE YOURSELF FROM LIMITATION

MAGNIFY YOUR LIFE

DEVELOP A LOVE-CENTERED MAP

Evans believes that we all want to know the meaning of our lives. In The Four Doors, he shows how even the most quiet life can be full of purpose and joy, if we choose to take that first step over the threshold.

Amazon.com

In his foreword, literally entitled "Why I Wrote This Book", author Richard Paul Evans explains that the idea for this came from a sort of off-the-cuff talk he gave to a room full of high schoolers. It was then honed into a speech he presented, at various times and in varying venues, to business people, criminals and drug addicts. A decade later, he expanded on the ideas he first presented and fashioned them into book form so that his blueprint for a more fulfilling life might reach the masses in general. 

Boiled down to their essential form, the four "doors" or basic principles Evans works off of are:

BELIEVE THERE’ S A REASON YOU WERE BORN

FREE YOURSELF FROM LIMITATION

MAGNIFY YOUR LIFE

DEVELOP A LOVE-CENTERED MAP

From there, he delves deeper into topics such as self will, spiritual evolution, and the classic, "the only constant is change". 

The gist of what he covers here:

SELF WILL: Nothing happens without you propelling yourself either into or out of a situation. Even the act of relinquishing freedom is a choice. Basically, anything that has you throwing even a thought at it is a choice on some level. Evans encourages readers to learn the power of discernment and to find the courage to filter out some of the garbage out there that people will sometimes feed you that could pull you away from your true path. 

SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION: Nothing happens by chance or accident. Your life definitely has a purpose. Your life on Earth is meant to be a schooling for your soul to spiritually evolve.

But Evans also reminds readers to keep in mind that true greatness in a person will not always equate to fame. 

 

THE TRUE MEASURE OF GREATNESS

I have found that some people, in searching for a meaningful life, have confused greatness with fame. In spite of our culture's obsession with celebrity, a successful life does not have to include fame and, in most cases, shouldn't. Fame and greatness are not the same thing. There are great people in this world -- people of great accomplishment and service to humanity -- who are not famous. There are scores of famous people who are not great. In most cases, true greatness is a silent and lonely affair, unaccompanied by the trumpeted fanfare of acclaim. More important than being known is being of value. The great impact of a loving parent may shake nations. One can only wonder how different the world would be had Adolf Hitler been raised by two kind, happy, and loving parents. Likewise, the spark lit (or extinguished) by a caring and wise teacher may have saved the world more than once. 

To be of value to others is a far greater ambition than the vain hope for the world's fleeting applause and fickle admiration. In the end, it is better to be loved by one person who knows your soul than a million people who don't even know your phone number. 

ONLY CONSTANT IS CHANGE: Both our spiritual and physical states are in constant flux. The change is necessary because remaining stationary would mean we would inevitable start to diminish. 

There are moments here where Evans gives readers some solid food for thought. A few of the topics I found interesting:

* Thinking about how all big inventions, marvels of architecture, world religions, democracy, all that.. started as a seed of an idea in one person's mind.. something to keep in mind when we feel too insignificant to create change or develop great art or inventions! 

* During times of hardship, don't give into victimhood. Don't give the power of your life and well-being to someone (or something) else. We can't learn and mature without facing adversity from time to time. 

* The mention of a survey once done at UCLA where over 1000 people were asked, "If you could be given a pill that would take away all disability from the body, but it would mean you would lose all the experience and wisdom you learned from living with the disability, would you take the pill?" Honestly, that would be a tough call for me. I appreciate life experience but chronic pain is a witch to live with. 

Inspiring as this book is meant to be, Evans doesn't really cover new ground all that much. There were also a few things about the guy himself that just bugged me. I find it off-putting when authors heavily quote themselves in their own books. To me it just reeks of "look how genius I am! and humble too!" I really cringed at one point in this book when Evans says "I think every home in America should have this quote" and of course it was one of his own. UGH. 

His story about the book signing also bothered me. He presented it as an example of him going for his dreams, tackling a goal he wanted... but in this instance, he describes taking the seat at an author book signing of an author who was apparently either late or a no-show. Evans presented himself as the author, got staff at the venue to wait on him as if he were the scheduled celebrity and then presented himself to an audience as an established author. This moment apparently helped launch his professional career. He was clearly proud of himself but I kinda saw it as him coming to his fame by somewhat dishonest means. Not classy. Granted, it's impressive to see him with such a success story professionally after having a lifelong struggle with Tourette's Syndrome as well as having a suicidal mother ... but still, for someone writing a motivational / self-help style work, closing on that book signing story was a disappointment for me. 

Im Grunde ist "Der Weihnachtswunsch" eine moderne Variante des bekannten Weihnachtsmärchens von Charles Dickens:

Der reiche Karrieremensch James muss an Weihnachten erkennen, was für ein selbstsüchtiges, leeres Leben er führt und wie vielen Menschen er damit geschadet hat, und das rüttelt ihn dermaßen auf, dass er Besserung gelobt. Deswegen bittet er seine Sekretärin, ihm eine Liste mit den Menschen zu erstellen, die am meisten unter ihm gelitten haben, und macht sich auf den Weg, sie nacheinander aufzusuchen und den Schaden, den er angerichtet hat, wieder gutzumachen.

Die Geschichte ist also nicht unbedingt etwas Neues, aber ich fand sie interessant, unterhaltsam und berührend umgesetzt. Ich war angenehm überrascht, dass der Autor es James nicht zu einfach macht - der reumütige Büßer muss schnell erkennen, dass man sich Vergebung nicht mal so eben erkaufen und Unrecht nicht immer ungeschehen machen kann. Nicht jeden Punkt auf der Liste kann James abhaken. Und mehr und mehr begreift er, dass seine Reue von Herzen kommen muss, aus dem ehrlichen Wunsch heraus, zu helfen - und nicht aus dem Wunsch heraus, das eigene Gewissen zu beruhigen.

Religion und Glaube spielen in diesem Buch eine Rolle, stehen aber nicht im Mittelpunkt; man kann auch als nicht religiöser Mensch etwas für sich mitnehmen. Für mich ist es ein Buch, das dazu anregt, auch mal über das eigene Verhalten nachzudenken und sich vorzunehmen, jetzt, in der Gegenwart, alles zu tun, damit man in der Zukunft nichts bereuen muss.

Anfangs hatte ich nicht erwartet, mich mit James anfreunden zu können, so egoistisch und skrupellos ist sein Verhalten. Aber natürlich erfährt man im Laufe des Buches noch, wie es überhaupt dazu kommen konnte, dass ein Mann, der in jungen Jahren freundlich, hilfsbereit und warmherzig war, sich dermaßen in einen eiskalten Geschäftsmann verwandelt, und das hat mich halbwegs mit ihm versöhnt. Vergebung ist ein wichtiges Thema in diesem Buch, und James tut wirklich sein Möglichstes, um sie sich auch zu verdienen.

Natürlich geht seine Wandlung sehr schnell vonstatten und das ist sicher nicht ganz realistisch, aber das hat mich nur wenig gestört, schließlich verwandelt sich auch in Dickens' Weihnachtsmärchen Ebenezer Scrooge quasi über Nacht! Von einem Weihnachtsbuch erwahrte ich weniger Realitätsnähe als von einem regulären Roman.

Auch die anderen Charaktere haben mir an sich gut gefallen, denn auch diejenigen, die nur kurz auftauchen, haben alle ihre ganz persönliche Geschichte und wirkten auf mich glaubhaft und lebendig. Allerdings hätte ich mir bei vielen der Menschen auf James' Liste gewünscht, noch wesentlich mehr über sie zu erfahren! Sie wurden zum Teil eben doch sehr schnell abgehakt, und auf zum nächsten.

Der Schreibstil ist eher einfach, aber angenehm und flüssig zu lesen, und so hatte ich das Buch dann auch in nur einer Nacht durch.

Das Ende ist eine bittersüße Mischung, bei der nicht alles gut ausgeht, es aber doch in allem auch Hoffnung gibt, und das macht es für mich trotz kleiner Kritikpunkte zu einem schönen Weihnachtsbuch.

Fazit:
Der reiche Geschäftsmann James liest seinen eigenen Nachruf in der Zeitung - ein Versehen, das ihm die Augen öffnet, denn nun fühlt sich alle Welt frei, sich darüber auszulassen, was für ein skrupelloser Fiesling er doch war. Und jetzt, wo er so darüber nachdenkt, stellt er fest: sie haben recht. Also bittet er seine Sekretärin, ihm eine Liste mit den Menschen zu erstellen, denen er am meisten geschadet hat, und zieht los, das Unrecht wiedergutzumachen.

"Der Weihnachtswunsch" ist für mich kein Buch, das man unbedingt gelesen haben muss, aber es ist ein nettes Buch für zwischendurch, wenn man im Weihnachtstrubel mal ein wenig die Seele baumeln lassen will, das aber dennoch zum Nachdenken anregt. Natürlich ist nicht alles realistisch, aber der Autor lässt durchaus auch manches bittersüß enden.