Steve Gilliland , whose books can be found at Cleveland's Mac Books, shares the parable of two angels who travel to earth, one the mentor of the younger. First they arrive at a rich man’s house, disguised as travelers they ask for a place to stay. The rich man has a large mansion and tells them, “I have a couple of mattresses in the basement, you can stay there.”
Once in the basement the older angel sees a crack in the wall and goes to work repairing it. The younger angel is puzzled and says, “Why would you help a man with so much money that helped us so little?” The older angel replies, “Things are not always as they seem.”
The next night the angels travel to another town and stop by the home of a poor couple. They ask for a place to stay. Quickly the couple prepares the master bedroom and gives the angels their bed. The man and his wife then sleep on the couch.
The next morning the angels are awakened by crying. Rushing downstairs they find the man and his wife sobbing in the kitchen. The couple share that they awoke to find their cow had died. They went on to explain that the cow was their only source of income as they could sell its milk. Now they did not know how they would make ends meet.
The younger angel once again looks questioningly at the mature angel who again whispers, “Things are not always as they seem.”
The angels depart to the next town. On their way the younger angel can contain himself no longer and says, “You helped a rich man by repairing his wall, why did you not help the poor couple by saving the cow?”
The older angel responds, “Behind the crack in the wall was gold. I sealed the wall so that the rich man would not find it; his greed has already taken ahold of his entire life. As for the poor couple, last night the angel of death came for the wife, I gave him the cow instead. Remember, things are not always as they seem.”
It was General Patton who shared, “Courage is fear holding on a minute longer.”
There are many unknowns in life. It is said that the only constant is change. Anthony Robbins wisely noted that change is inevitable, progress is not. The difference is in whether or not we dance with the change instead of fighting against it. As has been often said, what we resist persists.
The words of Ambrose Redmoon are worth remembering when faced with uncertainty, “Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.”
Don’t give up when obstacles stand in your way, remember, things are not always what they seem.
Comments