A couple on their honeymoon were about to get into bed at their hotel when a masked burglar broke in. He drew a chalk circle on the floor, beckoned to the husband and said, “Stand there in that circle. If you step out of it, I shall shoot you through the head!”
While the husband stood inside the circle bolt upright, the burglar took everything he could lay his hands on, threw it all into a sack and was about to get away when he saw once again the pretty bride covered in nothing more than a sheet. He called out to her, turned on the radio, made her dance with him and would have gone farther hadn’t she valiantly fought him off.
When the burglar finally took off, the woman turned to her husband and yelled, “What kind of man are you that you just stood in the middle of that circle doing nothing while I was almost molested?” “It isn’t true I did nothing,” the husband protested, “I defied him. Each time he had his back turned towards me, I stuck my foot outside the circle!”
Yes, I’m sure it’s made you and me laugh, but just imagine there are people like this all over who are as scared as mice! And talking about mice: According to an ancient Indian fable a mouse was in constant distress because of its fear of the cat. A magician took pity on it and asked the mouse, “What do you want to become?”
“A cat,” said the mouse. So a cat the mouse became. But then it became afraid of the dog. So the magician turned it into a dog. Then it began to fear the panther, and into a panther it was changed. But the panther feared the lion, and the hunter and the magician dutifully changed it into all of these, but it was still afraid.
At this point the magician gave up. He turned it into a mouse again saying, “Nothing I do for you is going to help, because you have the heart of a mouse!” Do you have the ‘heart of a mouse?’ Were you a scared boy or girl when you were small, maybe poverty or lack of status made you afraid of people above you, but today you’ve reached the top, through efforts of your own, but find that you are still afraid to confront issues?
A verse from the scriptures, that gives me great courage, ‘Be not afraid, I am with you always!” And it’s this courage we need to instill in ourselves, that in the most frightening circumstances we face, not just burglars, but the most gigantic of situations, God is with us! So take courage..!
—Email: bobsbanter@gmail.com
