Short Stories

Don't be serious, just try to be sincere

Don't just have career or academic goals. Set goals to give you a balanced, successful life. I use the word balanced before successful. Balanced means ensuring your health, relationships, mental peace are all in good order.

There is no point of getting a promotion on the day of your breakup. There is no fun in driving a car if your back hurts. Shopping is not enjoyable if your mind is full of tensions.

"Life is one of those races in nursery school where you have to run with a marble in a spoon kept in your mouth. If the marble falls, there is no point coming first. Same is with life where health and relationships are the marble. Your striving is only worth it if there is harmony in your life. Else, you may achieve the success, but this spark, this feeling of being excited and alive, will start to die. .......

One thing about nurturing the spark - don't take life seriously. Life is not meant to be taken seriously, as we are really temporary here. We are like a pre-paid card with limited validity. If we are lucky, we may last another 50 years. And 50 years is just 2,500 weekends. Do we really need to get so worked up? .......

It's ok, missing few classes, scoring low in couple of papers, goof up a few interviews, take leave from work, fall in love, little fights with your spouse. We are people, not programmed devices........."

"Don't be serious, just try to be sincere."

The Ant & the Contact Lens

Brenda was a young woman who was invited to go rock climbing. Although she was scared to death, she went with her group to a tremendous granite cliff. In spite of her fear, she put on the gear, took hold on the rope and started up the face of that rock. Well, she got to a ledge where she could take a breather. As she was hanging on there, the safety rope snapped against Brenda's eye and knocked out her contact lens.

Well, here she is on a rock ledge, with hundreds of feet Below her and hundreds of feet above her. Of course, she looked and looked and looked, hoping it had landed on the ledge, but it just wasn't there. Here she was, far from home, her sight now blurry. She was desperate and began to get upset, so she prayed to the Lord to help her to find it.

When she got to the top, a friend examined her eye and her clothing for the lens, but there was no contact lens to be found. She sat down, despondent, with the rest of the party, waiting for the rest of them to make it up the face of the cliff.

She looked out across range after range of mountains, thinking of that Bible verse that says, "The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth." She thought, "Lord, You can see all these mountains. You know every stone and leaf, and You know exactly where my contact lens is. Please help me."

Finally, they walked down the trail to the bottom. At the bottom there was a new party of climbers just starting up the face of the cliff. One of them shouted out, "Hey, you guys! Anybody lose a contact lens?" Well, that would be startling enough, but you know why the climber saw it? An ant was moving slowly across the face of the rock, carrying it.

Brenda told me that when she told her father the incredible story of the ant, the prayer, and the contact lens, he of an ant lugging that contact lens with the words, "Lord, I don't know why You want me to carry this thing. I can't eat it, and it's awfully heavy. But if this is what You want me do, I'll carry it for You." I think it would probably do some of us good to occasionally say, "God, I don't know why you want me to carry this load. I can see no good in it and it's awfully heavy.

But, if you want Me to carry it, I will."

The Salt and the Lake

The old Master instructed the unhappy young man to put a handful of salt in a glass of water and then to drink it. "How does it taste?" the Master asked. "Not good at all," spat the apprentice.

The Master chuckled and then asked the young man to take another handful of salt and put it in the lake. The two walked in silence to the nearby lake and when the apprentice swirled his handful of salt into the lake, the old man said, "Now drink from the lake."

As the water dripped down the young man's chin, the Master asked, "How does it taste?" "Good!" remarked the apprentice. "Do you taste the salt?" asked the Master. "No," said the young man.

The Master sat beside this troubled young man, took his hands, and said, "The pain of life is pure salt; no more, no less. The amount of pain in life remains the same, exactly the same. But the amount we taste the 'pain' depends on the container we put it into. So when you are in pain, the only thing you can do is to enlarge your sense of things..... Stop being a glass.  Become a lake!"

House of 1000 Mirrors

There was place known as the House of 1000 Mirrors.

A small, happy little dog learned of this place and decided to visit. When he arrived, he bounced happily up the stairs to the doorway of the house.

He looked through the doorway with his ears lifted high and his tail wagging as fast as it could. To his great surprise, he found himself staring at 1000 other happy little dogs with their tails wagging just as fast as his. He smiled a great smile, and was answered with 1000 great smiles just as warm and friendly. As he left the House, he thought to himself, "This is a wonderful place. I will come back and visit it often."

In this same village, another little dog, who was not quite as happy as the first one, decided to visit the house. He slowly climbed the stairs and hung his head low as he looked into the door.

When he saw the 1000 unfriendly looking dogs staring back at him, he growled at them and was horrified to see 1000 little dogs growling back at him. As he left, he thought to himself, "That is a horrible place, and I will never go back there again."

All the faces in the world are mirrors. What kind of reflections do you see in the faces of the people you meet?

Counting the countless

A Man Reached 70 Years Of Age

And He Faced A Disease;

He Could Not Urinate.

The Doctors informed Him

That He Was in Need Of An Operation

To Cure This Disease.

He Agreed To Have The Operation

Done As The Problem Was Giving Him

Much Pain For Days.

When The Operation Was Completed,

His Doctor Gave Him The Bill

Which Covered All The Costs.

The Old Man Looked At The Bill

And Started To Cry.

Upon Seeing This The Doctor Told Him

That if The Cost Was Too High

Then They Could Make Some Other Arrangements.

The Old Man Said

I Am Not Crying Because Of The Money

But I Am Crying

Because The Lord Let Me Urinate

For 70 Years And He Never Sent Me A Bill

Mistake of senior executive

When John D Rockefeller ran the Standard Oil Company one of his senior executives made a mistake that cost over $2 million.

The other executives thought Rockefeller would come down heavy on him and probably fire him.  But he didn't.  Before he called the man in, he sat down, took a notepad and wrote across the top of it: 'Points in favour of this man'.  Then he listed the man's strengths, including how he'd once helped the company make the right decision and earn them millions of dollars.  

One of the senior executives who witnessed it later said, 'Whenever I am tempted to rip into someone, I force myself to sit down and compile a list of the good qualities they have.  By the time I have finished, I have the right perspective.  And best of all, my anger is under control.  I can't tell you how many times this habit has prevented me from committing one of life's costliest mistakes-losing my temper.  I recommend it to anyone who must deal with people.  

So before you jump to conclusions about someone, stop and ask God for wisdom, then sit down and make a list of their best qualities.  If you do you may come to a different conclusion.  One thing is for sure, you'll approach them with the right attitude and you won't say things you'll later regret.