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A traveler was walking from a village in the mountains to a village in the valley.
Along the way he saw a man working in a field. The traveler stopped to ask the man what the village ahead in the valley was like. The man asked which village the traveler had come from. Upon hearing which one, the man asked what the traveler had found that village to be like.
The traveler gave several examples of how life there was quite miserable: no-one spoke his language, he had to sleep on a dirt floor in one of the houses, he was fed some strange stew, and the weather was terrible.
“Well, I’m afraid that you will find the village ahead in the valley is much the same,” the man said.
A few hours later, another traveler passed by. He too stopped to inquire of the man working in the field what the village ahead in the valley was like. Again the man asked which place he had come from in the mountains. It was the same village as the earlier traveler had been at.
“And what was that village like?” the man asked of the second traveler.
“It was awesome! No one spoke my language, so we had to communicate using our hands and facial expressions, I had to sleep on the dirt floor which was a new experience for me, they fed me some sort of weird stew which helped me experience how the locals lived, and the weather was freezing cold, which also helped me appreciate the local conditions. It was one of the best experiences of my life,” the traveler replied.
“Then I think that you’ll find that the village in the valley is much the same,” said the man.
The moral of the story? Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we respond. There’s a lot of reasons to complain and be miserable if that’s how you look at life. But there are also lots of reasons to be thankful and joyful.
Paul wrote to Timothy, “Godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” (1 Timothy 6:6-10).
Perhaps the love of money isn’t the only great trap that can lead to trouble — maybe the love of an easy, carefree, convenient life can also lead us to be cranks and misfits if we’re not careful.
A good question to ask yourself is this: what does it take to make me happy and content? Is it more and more stuff or ease in life? Consider how much money is spent each year in this country to make you think you need more and more: “The US has one of the most lucrative advertising industries in the world. With a projected ad spend of almost $300 billion in 2023, the US market leads competitors such as China and Japan by a wide margin.” (Brock Munro blog in Publift.com).
That’s $300,000,000,000 — In 2023 alone! Most of it spent to get people to buy something they probably didn’t need anyway.
Remember: Godliness with contentment equals great gain.
Rev. Randy Crane is the pastor at Waldensian Presbyterian Church in Monett. He may be reached at cranes5@hotmail.com.
