There is a wonderful story about a man lying on a raft in the water.
A wealthy man from the dock yells down at him, "What are you doing? You should be working.
" The man on the raft replies, "Then what would I do?" From the dock the man says, "Then you could make more money.
" Again the man on the raft asks, "Then what would I do?" The wealthy man responds, "Then you could save enough money to buy a bigger boat and put people to work for you.
" Puzzled, the man in the raft asks, "Then what would I do?" With more intensity and somewhat irritated the man from the dock tells him, "Then you could make more money and then you could buy more boats and put more men to work for you.
" Once more the man quietly floating in the water questions, "Then what would I do?" "Then you could have a whole fleet of ships and employees working on your behalf and if you stay with it long enough you will become very wealthy.
" "Then what would I do?" came the expected response.
Flabbergasted the wealthy business man replied, "Then you could relax!" To which the man in the boat responded, "What do you think I am doing now?" The story is a great picture of how easily we can get out of touch with the rhythms of life.
We can get so caught up in pursuing something external that we forget to slow down and appreciate the life that we have been given.
In short, sometimes the ends are not worth the means.
I am all for working hard and pursing goals and dreams, but at the same time aware of the wise advice one speaker shared at a conference when he said, "For some of you the most spiritual thing you need to do is take a nap.
" Mark Buchanan shares a story about his wife's grandmother during the gold rush of British Columbia.
One day she was polishing a stone when she noticed some gold dust in her palm.
She began to polish the stone harder and harder, and sure enough more gold dust appeared.
Caught up in the rush of the moment she began to put all of her energy into the stone before suddenly realizing the gold dust was coming from her wedding ring which by now was almost completely sanded off.
Does the story sound familiar? Haven't we all been in a hurry too many times, not realizing we were sanding off our wedding ring? As Joyce Meyer said to someone who asked her why things were going so badly responded, "Because the devil is real and because he is mean!" As Carl Jung so aptly put it, "Hurry is not of the devil; hurry is the devil.
" Buchanan shares about a friend who was confused because he was sure God was trying to get his attention to do something.
Buchanan responded, "Maybe that's the problem: you think he wants your attention in order for you to do something.
Maybe he just wants your attention.
"
A wealthy man from the dock yells down at him, "What are you doing? You should be working.
" The man on the raft replies, "Then what would I do?" From the dock the man says, "Then you could make more money.
" Again the man on the raft asks, "Then what would I do?" The wealthy man responds, "Then you could save enough money to buy a bigger boat and put people to work for you.
" Puzzled, the man in the raft asks, "Then what would I do?" With more intensity and somewhat irritated the man from the dock tells him, "Then you could make more money and then you could buy more boats and put more men to work for you.
" Once more the man quietly floating in the water questions, "Then what would I do?" "Then you could have a whole fleet of ships and employees working on your behalf and if you stay with it long enough you will become very wealthy.
" "Then what would I do?" came the expected response.
Flabbergasted the wealthy business man replied, "Then you could relax!" To which the man in the boat responded, "What do you think I am doing now?" The story is a great picture of how easily we can get out of touch with the rhythms of life.
We can get so caught up in pursuing something external that we forget to slow down and appreciate the life that we have been given.
In short, sometimes the ends are not worth the means.
I am all for working hard and pursing goals and dreams, but at the same time aware of the wise advice one speaker shared at a conference when he said, "For some of you the most spiritual thing you need to do is take a nap.
" Mark Buchanan shares a story about his wife's grandmother during the gold rush of British Columbia.
One day she was polishing a stone when she noticed some gold dust in her palm.
She began to polish the stone harder and harder, and sure enough more gold dust appeared.
Caught up in the rush of the moment she began to put all of her energy into the stone before suddenly realizing the gold dust was coming from her wedding ring which by now was almost completely sanded off.
Does the story sound familiar? Haven't we all been in a hurry too many times, not realizing we were sanding off our wedding ring? As Joyce Meyer said to someone who asked her why things were going so badly responded, "Because the devil is real and because he is mean!" As Carl Jung so aptly put it, "Hurry is not of the devil; hurry is the devil.
" Buchanan shares about a friend who was confused because he was sure God was trying to get his attention to do something.
Buchanan responded, "Maybe that's the problem: you think he wants your attention in order for you to do something.
Maybe he just wants your attention.
"