SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2007

THE TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

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Dear Friends in Our Lord Jesus:

By definition, life involves choices. Our physical lives involve physical choices and our spiritual lives involve spiritual choices. And it is easy to get them confused. Consider the following little parable:

Many years ago, an Eastern spiritual teacher had a young disciple who advanced rapidly in his spiritual life. The disciple’s growth was so pronounced, in fact, that he decided to “dismiss” his teacher and set out on his own.

At first, the young man lived simply. He stayed in a one-room mud hut and begged for food. Most of the day was devoted to prayers and meditation. Each morning he walked to the river, where he carefully washed his loincloth and hung it out to dry. One day, the disciple found that his loincloth had been torn and eaten by rats. So he begged the townspeople for another loincloth, which also was torn and eaten by rats.

Not knowing what else to do, the disciple got a cat, which took care of the rats. But the cat needed milk. So when the disciple begged for his own food, he also had to beg for milk for his cat.

“This will not do,” the young man thought. So, he got a cow. But then he had to beg for feed for the cow, in addition to food for him and his cat. And then he had to till and plant the ground around his hut, in order to provide an ongoing source of food and income for his growing “family.” Within a year, the disciple found he had no time for his spiritual disciplines. So he hired servants to work on his little farm. But the oversight of his workers also took time, so he decided to get married so his wife could help with the chores. Within five years, the one-time disciple was the richest man in town.

His former teacher walked by one day and was startled to see that his student’s little mud hut had blossomed into a large palace, which was surrounded by a vast estate. “What is the meaning of this?” he asked his former pupil.

“You won’t believe this, sir,” the former student replied. “But there was really no other way for me to keep my loincloth.”

The moral of the story? We have opportunities every day to make life-changing choices. But we need God’s help and guidance in order to choose wisely.

-- The Very Rev. Dr. Steve Sellers +