Chinese Food for Thought

I heard this story on the radio and thought I should share it.

A certain man in China long ago was envied by his neighbor because he owned a stallion better than any other around. His neighbor's envy turned to pity, however, when the stallion got out of his corral and ran off one day. But the horse's owner wisely considered, "Who knows if I should be envied, or if I should be pitied?"

His reasoning proved apt, for the following week his stallion came back, leading an entire herd of wild horses into the corral. The neighbor was envious once more, but the wise man said again, "Who knows if I should be envied, or if I should be pitied?"

A few days later the wise man's son tried to break one of the wild horses to the saddle, and was thrown and broke his leg. The wise man accepted his neighbor's pity, but offered his mantra again: "Who knows if I should be envied, or if I should be pitied?"

While the leg was still healing, the emperor's top general came to the wise man's house to draft his son for an important and very dangerous mission. But with the first pick indisposed, he went instead to the neighbor and drafted his eldest instead. Even in the enviable position of having narrowly held onto his firstborn, the wise man still reasoned, "Who knows if I should be envied, or if I should be pitied?"

It goes on like that, but the lesson is clear: don't take your circumstances at face value. Everything has turns both good and bad.

Hm, makes one think...

Sure does.

I had an experience kind of like that today. I discovered that the girl I was thinking about dating isn't as serious about God as she is about pleasing people, and doesn't seem to consider the Bible truly inspired. As unpleasant as it may seem on the surface, I thank God because now I know she wasn't the one, freeing me to look elsewhere.