The Oak and the Reeds

The Oak and the Reeds
a fable by Aesop

A Giant Oak stood near a brook in which grew some slender Reeds. When the wind blew, the great Oak stood proudly upright with its hundred arms uplifted to the sky. But the Reeds bowed low in the wind and sang a sad and mournful song.

"You have reason to complain," said the Oak. "The slightest breeze that ruffles the surface of the water makes you bow your heads, while I, the mighty Oak, stand upright and firm before the howling tempest."

"Do not worry about us," replied the Reeds. "The winds do not harm us. We bow before them and so we do not break. You, in all your pride and strength, have so far resisted their blows. But the end is coming."

As the Reeds spoke a great hurricane rushed out of the north. The Oak stood proudly and fought against the storm, while the yielding Reeds bowed low. The wind redoubled in fury, and all at once the great tree fell, torn up by the roots, and lay among the pitying Reeds.

Moral: Better to yield when it is folly to resist, than to resist stubbornly and be destroyed.

Miracles Need Both God and You

Every miracle needs two participants - God and you.

There are two things you need to do to begin a miracle. First, you need to have a genuine unselfish intention for the outcome. Second, you must do everything within your own earthly power to facilitate the miracle. Everything else is God's job.

To illustrate this, let me re-tell a very old story.

For years a man prayed each day, "Please God, let me win the lottery." After receiving no response whatever, he finally asked, "God, why have you forsaken me? All I asked was just to win the lottery."

The skies opened and a powerful voice answered, "Jacob, Jacob, meet me halfway. At least buy a lottery ticket."

I re-tell this story because it is cute, and not because winning the lottery is an appropriate miracle to ask for. But the takeaway is, "Meet me halfway." Don't expect God to do what you are able to do for yourself. God's part of the job is to do everything you don't have the ability to do for yourself.

Let's look at an example. Three people have cancer.

1. The first person says, "I'll have the surgery and the chemo. Who needs God."
2. The second says, "If I pray hard enough, I don't need modern medical treatments."
3. The third says, "My part of the miracle is the surgery and the chemo. I am meeting God halfway, and the rest of the miracle is God's job."

I would be that third person, believing that God expects us to use the earthly tools He has given us as our commitment to meet Him halfway.

If modern medicine offered no options, I would travel to Lourdes or to John of God to fulfill my part of meeting God halfway.

A miracle doesn't have to be about a life-or-death crisis. All of life is composed of smaller miracles. For each of those miracles meet God halfway - even if that just means standing in the rain and getting wet to get a better look at one of God's miracle rainbows.

The Brick - a story of brotherly love

The Brick - an anonymous story of brotherly love

Variations of this story have been around a long time...

As a young and successful executive was traveling down a neighborhood street, going a bit too fast in his new Jaguar, a brick smashed into the Jag's side door. The angry driver slammed on the brakes and backed the Jag back to the spot where the brick had been thrown. He jumped out of the car, grabbed the nearest kid and pushed him up against a parked car shouting, "What was that all about and who are you? Just what the heck are you doing? That's a new car and that brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money. Why did you do it?"

The young boy was apologetic. "Please, mister ... please, I'm sorry but I didn't know what else to do. I threw the brick because no one else would stop..." With tears dripping down his face and off his chin, the youth pointed to a spot just around a parked car. "It's my brother,' he said. "He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can't lift him up."

Now sobbing, the boy asked the stunned executive, "Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He's hurt and he's too heavy for me."

Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat. He hurriedly lifted the handicapped boy back into the wheelchair, then took out a linen handkerchief and dabbed at the fresh scrapes and cuts. A quick look told him everything was going to be okay.

"Thank you and may God bless you," the grateful child told the stranger.

Too shook up for words, the man simply watched the boy push his wheelchair-bound brother down the sidewalk toward their home.

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Moral: Don't go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention.