Once upon a time, there was a king. The king liked one of his followers very much because he was very wise and always gave very useful advice. Therefore the king took him along wherever he went.
One day, the king was bitten by a dog, his finger was injured and the wound was getting worse.
He asked the follower if that was a bad sign.
The follower said, ‘Good or bad, hard to say’.In the end, the king’s finger got so bad it had to be amputated.
The king asked the follower again, if that was a bad sign.
Again, the follower gave the same answer, ‘Good or bad, hard to say’.
The king became very angry and sent the follower to prison.
One day, the king went hunting in the jungle. He got excited chasing a deer and deeper and deeper into the jungle he went. In the end he found himself lost and to make things worse, he got caught by the natives living in the jungle.
They wanted to sacrifice him to their God but when they noticed that the king was short of a finger, they released him immediately as he wasn’t a perfect specimen of a man and was therefore not a suitable sacrifice.
The king managed to get back to his palace and he finally understood the follower’s wise
quote : ‘Good or bad, hard to say’ – If he hadn’t lost one finger, he would have lost his life to the natives.
He immediately ordered the release of his follower, and apologized to him.
But to the king’s amazement, the follower wasn’t mad at him at all.
Instead he said:
‘It wasn’t a bad thing that you locked me up. Why? Because if you hadn’t, you would have brought me along to the jungle. If the natives found you unsuitable to be a sacrifice, they would’ve used me.”
Again, the quote ‘Good or bad, hard to say’ still stands.
——End of Story Here——-
Morale of the story? Wait and see to decide what response you should give – often we give a quick judge of the story and think we know how it’d end up. Chances are, things may not turn out the way we thought and perceive it did.
Good or bad, everything has its place, purpose and time. Something bad may be good, and vice versa. A loss may become a great gain, like how Jacob lost everything in the beginning but had everything reinstated to him twofold.
Perhaps we can slow down, and take things in our stride, taking and enjoying life as much as we can, without holding on too tight.
If one can understand this, he or she will find life much easier. We live our lives progressively, but we learn it retrospectively – keep an open heart and an open mind, and let’s see how things progress. I’m not saying no to planning, I’m saying plan, but with open heart.
You’d do awesome.