THE STORY OF A FOOLISH MAN
by Hushpuppy
04 August 1998
"A man was out walking one night when he came upon another man under a street light. This man was down on his hands and knees crawling around on the street moving around as if searching for something.
Another man came up to him and asked, "What are you doing crawling around on your hands and knees? Did you drop something?"
The man on his knees replied, "Yes, I lost my keys and I am looking for them."
"Oh," replied the man out for a walk. "Did you drop them here?" he asked.
"No," retorted the other man. "I lost them around my house, but I am looking over here because there is more light over here and it is easier to look."
I think at sometime we all fall into the habit of the foolish man on the street. It is obvious that he is not going to find his keys under the street light because he did not lose them there. He could go and look around his house, but he doesn't want to look in the dark, since it is easier to look under the light. There is no substitute the man can make for looking in the dark. It must be done if he wants to find what he is looking for.
This is usually where we mess up. I know I do it all the time and I see my friends do it all the time. I fill my life and time with stupid things instead of taking time for God. I take the easy way out when I am in one of these situations and the result is not what I wanted. I think it is so easy for anyone to fall into this trap. I know what direction I should be (and want to be going in) but I wimp out and take the easy way, the way that leads me away from God.
I think at times faith is an uphill battle. There are times when my faith is very easy and I am on a spiritual plateau. This is fine and really great because everything seems to flow. The only problem with these plateaus is that I stop growing in my faith; I stop striving to move forward. Usually, I just kind of sit back and chill, simply because it is much easier. By the time I realize I am slipping back, it has already become much more of an uphilll battle. It is then that I usually realize what I should have been doing was working to grow more and taking what seemed like at the time to be the harder way, even though it turns out being much easier in the long run.
So, the point of this story is to look at the situation you are in and see what you are doing. Are you working hard to grow in your faith and do the right thing, or are you taking the easy way out and looking under the street light?"
(Author unknown, but am sure it was written for me!)
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