Saturday, January 28, 2012

"If You Plant" by Anonymous

I received this story as an email forward last year but I don't know the author. It has a great message, and I may create a blog post or two using this story in the future...

If You Plant

A successful business man was growing old and knew it was time
to choose a successor to take over the business.
Instead of choosing one of his Directors or his children, he
decided to do something different. He called all the young
executives in his company together.

He said, "It is time for me to step down and choose the next
CEO. I have decided to choose one of you. "The young executives
were Shocked, but the boss continued. "I am going to give each
one of you a SEED today - one very special SEED. I want you to
plant the seed, water it, and come back here one year from
today with what you have grown from the seed I have given you.
I will then judge the plants that you bring, and the one
I choose will be the next CEO."

One man, named Jim, was there that day and he, like the
others, received a seed. He went home and excitedly, told his
wife the story. She helped him get a pot, soil and compost and
he planted the seed. Everyday, he would water it and watch to see
if it had grown. After about three weeks, some of the other
executives began to talk about their seeds and the plants that
were beginning to grow.

Jim kept checking his seed, but nothing ever grew.

Three weeks, four weeks, five weeks went by, still
nothing.

By now, others were talking about their plants, but Jim didn't
have a plant and he felt like a failure.

Six months went by -- still nothing in Jim's pot. He just knew
he had killed his seed. Everyone else had trees and tall plants,
but he had nothing. Jim didn't say anything to his colleagues,
however, he just kept watering and fertilizing the soil - He so
wanted the seed to grow.

A year finally went by and all the young executives of the
company brought their plants to the CEO for inspection.

Jim told his wife that he wasn't going to take an empty pot. But
she asked him to be honest about what happened. Jim felt sick to
his stomach, it was going to be the most embarrassing moment of
his life, but he knew his wife was right. He took his empty pot
to the board room. When Jim arrived, he was amazed at the variety
of plants grown by the other executives. They were beautiful --
in all shapes and sizes. Jim put his empty pot on the floor
and many of his colleagues laughed, a few felt sorry for him!

When the CEO arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted his
young executives.

Jim just tried to hide in the back. "My, what great plants, trees
and flowers you have grown," said the CEO. "Today one of you will
be appointed the next CEO!"

All of a sudden, the CEO spotted Jim at the back of the room with
his empty pot. He ordered the Financial Director to bring him to
the front. Jim was terrified. He thought, "The CEO knows I'm a
failure! Maybe he will have me fired!"

When Jim got to the front, the CEO asked him what had happened
to his seed - Jim told him the story.

The CEO asked everyone to sit down except Jim. He looked at Jim,
and then announced to the young executives, "Behold your next
Chief Executive Officer! His name is Jim!" Jim couldn't believe
it. Jim couldn't even grow his seed.

"How could he be the new CEO?" the others said.

Then the CEO said, "One year ago today, I gave everyone in this
room a seed. I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it,
and bring it back to me today. But I gave you all boiled seeds;
they were dead - it was not possible for them to grow.

All of you, except Jim, have brought me trees and plants
and flowers. When you found that the seed would not grow, you
substituted another seed for the one I gave you. Jim was the
only one with the courage and honesty to bring me a pot with my
seed in it. Therefore, he is the one who will be the new Chief
Executive Officer!"

* If you plant honesty, you will reap trust

* If you plant goodness, you will reap friends

* If you plant humility, you will reap greatness

* If you plant perseverance, you will reap contentment

* If you plant consideration, you will reap perspective

* If you plant hard work, you will reap success

* If you plant forgiveness, you will reap reconciliation

So, be careful what you plant now; it will determine what you will reap later.

"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." (Galations 6:6 KJV)

Friday, January 27, 2012

An Expounding on the Word 'New' from Guy Finley

The following is from author Guy Finley's blog post "Soul-Transforming Prayer" on belief.net. To see the post in its entirety click here.
We’re looking to our own best ideas, to those well-preserved images from our own past experiences to guide us to something new, but the word new means nothing was before it...almost all of what we now think of as being “new” is little more than an unconscious continuation of some reconfigured past experience. What we’re looking for, unconsciously, is that familiar sense of self-renewal that comes with finding something similar to what we already knew, even though it has never fulfilled us before.

Before something genuinely new can appear in our lives, something old must pass...

...the wish for something new to occur [is]...born from knowing that being wrapped up in the old can only produce more of the old.

"Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." (2Cr 5:17 KJV)