Monday, April 30, 2007

Make this decision

Imagine this: a group of children are playing near two railway tracks, one still in use and the other unused. Only one child is playing on the unused track, the rest on the operational track. A train comes and you are just beside the track changer. You can make the train change its course to the unused track and save most of the kids. However that would also mean the lone child playing on the unused track would be killed. Will you let the train go on its way or switch its tracks?

Please pause for a minute and take a decision.

Many of us might choose to divert the course of the train and sacrifice only one child because to save most of the children at the expense of only one child is a rational decision that most people would make morally and emotionally. But have you ever thought the child choosing to play on the unused track had in fact made the right decision to play at a safe place?

Nevertheless, he had to be sacrificed because of his ignorant friends who chose to play where the danger was. This kind of dilemma happens around us everyday. In the office, in the community, in politics and especially in a democratic society, the minority (here the word does not mean the contempory political word-'minority') is often sacrificed for the interest of the majority, no matter how ignorant the majority is, and how far-sighted and knowledgeable the minority is. The child who chose not to play with the rest on the operational track was sidelined. And in case he was sacrificed, no one would shed tear for him.

The kids playing on the operational track should have known very well that the track was still in use, and that they should have run away if they heard the train's sirens. If the train was diverted, that lone child would definitely die because he never thought the train could come over to that track! Moreover that track was not in use probably because it was not safe. If the train was diverted to the track, we could put the lives of all the passengers on board at stake! And in your attempt to save a few kids by sacrificing one child, you might end up sacrificing hundreds of people to save these few kids. While we are all aware that life is full of tough decisions that need to be made, we may not realize that hasty decisions may not always be the right ones.

REMEMBER: "What's right isn't popular..... And what's popular isn't always right"

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Friday, April 27, 2007

People Are Watching

Several years ago, a new preacher moved to Houston, Texas. Some weeks after he arrived, he had occasion to ride the bus from his home to the downtown area.

When he sat down, he discovered that the driver had accidentally given him a quarter too much change. As he considered what to do, he thought to himself, "You'd better give the quarter back. It would be wrong to keep it."

Then he thought, "Oh, forget it, it's only a quarter. Who would worry about this little amount?Anyway, the bus company gets too much fare; they will never miss it. Accept it as a 'gift from God' and keep quiet."

When his stop came, he paused momentarily at the door, then he handed the quarter to the driver and said, "Here, you gave me too much change."

The driver with a smile replied, "Aren't you the new preacher in town? You know what, I have been thinking lately about going to worship somewhere. I just wanted to see what you would do if I gave you too much change. I'll see you at church on Sunday."

When the preacher stepped off of the bus, he grabbed the nearest light pole, and exhaled in shame "Oh God, I almost sold your son for a quarter today."

Our lives are the only Bible some people will ever read. This is an example of how much people watch us and will put us to the test.

Do good. Be good.

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Search the shark to keep u alive!

The Japanese have always loved fresh fish.

But the waters close to Japan have not held many fish for decades. So to feed the Japanese population, fishing boats got bigger and went farther than ever. The farther the fishermen went, the longer it took to bring in the fish. If the return trip took more than a few days, the fish were not fresh, and the Japanese did not like the taste, but of course.

To solve this problem, fishing companies installed freezers on their boats.

They would catch the fish and freeze them at sea. Freezers allowed the boats to go farther and stay longer. However, the Japanese could taste the difference between fresh and frozen and they did not like frozen fish. The frozen fish brought a lower price.

So now the fishing companies came up with another idea and installed fish tanks. They would catch the fish and stuff them in the tanks, fin to fin. Here again, another problem emerged.

After a little thrashing around, the fish stopped moving. They were tired and dull, but alive. And unfortunately, the Japanese could still taste the difference because the fish had lost their fresh-fish taste as it did not move for days. For obvious reasons, the fish-lover Japanese preferred the lively taste of fresh fish instead of sluggish fish.

So how did Japanese fishing companies solve this problem? How do they get fresh-tasting fish to Japan? If you were consulting the fish industry, what would you recommend??

Well, Here's the idea that fishing companies came out with:

To keep the fish tasting fresh, the Japanese fishing companies still put the fish in the tanks. But now they add a small shark to each tank. Yes the shark eats a few fish itself, but most of the fish arrive in a very lively state due to the constant run for their life, and they are lively every moment due to the chase going around!

Have you realized that some of us are also living in a pond but most of the time tired & dull, so we need a Shark in our life to keep us awake and moving? Basically in our lives Sharks are new challenges to keep us active and taste better. The more intelligent, persistent and competent you are, the more you enjoy a challenge. If your challenges are the correct size, and if you are steadily conquering those challenges, you are conqueror. You think of your challenges and get energized. You are excited to try new solutions. You have fun, you are alive!

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A Lesson In Humility

There was a young man who desired humility. He went to an old wise man and said to him, "Sir, I wish to be humble, but I don't know how to obtain it. What must I do to acquire humility?"

The old wise man thought for a minute and replied, "Here is what you should do… go out and find someone who is beneath you and do something nice for him. Give him something that you have or do something for him that needs to be done."

The young man replied, "I can do that!" He immediately left and came upon a homeless man on the street who looked like he had not eaten in days. He took the man to a restaurant and bought him a nice hot meal. After he dropped off the homeless man, the young man, who was feeling pretty good, returned to the wise man and told him what he had done. He then asked him, "Do I now have humility?" The wise old man replied, "Not yet!"

The young felt shocked "What else must I do to acquire humility then?"

The wise man said, "Go out and find someone else who is beneath you and do something nice for him."

This irked the young man "But Sir, I did that already! If I go help someone else, will I then have humility?" The wise man replied, "No you will still not."

This was getting on the nerves of the young man now, so he asked "How many people do I have to help… 10 people?"

"No"

"100 people?"

"No dear"

"I don't understand… please tell me how many people I have to help? How will I know when I have obtained humility?" asked the young man finally.

The wise old man replied, "My friend, you will have obtained humility when you can no longer find anyone that you think is BENEATH you!"

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Monday, April 16, 2007

Weaknesses into strength

A 10-year-old boy decided to study Judo despite the fact that he had lost his left arm in a devastating car accident. The boy began lessons with an old Japanese judo master. The boy was doing well, so he couldn't understand why, after three months of training the master had taught him only one move.

"Sensei," the boy finally said, "Shouldn't I be learning more moves?" "This is the only move you know, but this is the only move you'll ever need to know," the sensei replied. Not quite understanding, but believing in his teacher, the boy kept training.

Several months later, the sensei took the boy to his first tournament. Surprising himself, the boy easily won his first two matches. The third match proved to be more difficult, but after some time, his opponent became impatient and charged; the boy deftly used his one move to win the match. Still amazed by his success, the boy was now in the finals. This time, his opponent was bigger, stronger, and more experienced. For a while, the boy appeared to be overmatched. Concerned that the boy might get hurt, the referee called a time-out. He was about to stop the match when the sensei intervened.

"No," the sensei insisted, "Let him continue." Soon after the match resumed, his opponent made a critical mistake: he dropped his guard. Instantly, the boy used his move to pin him. The boy had won the match and the tournament!

He was the champion. On the way home, the boy and sensei reviewed every move in each and every match. Then the boy summoned the courage to ask what was really on his mind. "Sensei, how did I win the tournament with only one move?" "You won for two reasons," the sensei answered. "First, you've almost mastered one of the most difficult throws in all of judo. And second, the only known defense for that move is for your opponent to grab your left arm." The boy's biggest weakness had become his biggest strength!

Sometimes we feel that we have certain weaknesses and we blame others, the circumstances and our self for it but we never know that our weakness can become our strength one day. Each of us is special and important, so never think you have any weakness, never think of pride or pain, just live your life to its fullest and extract the best out of it.

You have powers you never dreamed of. You can do things you never thought you could do. There are no limitations in what you can do except the limitations of your own mind - Darwin P. Kingsley

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Tuesday, April 10, 2007

A piece of paper

One day a teacher asked her students to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name. Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down. It took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment, and as the students left the room, each one handed in the papers.

That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had said about that individual. On Monday she gave each student his or her list. Before long, the entire class was smiling. "Really?" she heard whispers. "I never knew that I meant anything to anyone!" and, "I didn't know others liked me so much," were most of the comments. No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. She never knew if they discussed them after class or with their parents, but it didn't matter. The exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy with themselves and one another. That group of students moved on.

Several years later, one of the students was killed in Vietnam and his teacher attended the funeral of that special student. She had never seen a serviceman in a military coffin before. He looked so handsome, so mature. The church was packed with his friends. One by one those who loved him took a last walk by the coffin. The teacher was the last one to bless the coffin.

As she stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as pallbearer came up to her. "Were you Mark's math teacher?" he asked. She nodded: "yes."

Then he said: "Mark talked about you a lot." After the funeral, most of Mark's former classmates went together to a luncheon. Mark's mother and father were there, obviously waiting to speak with his teacher. "We want to show you something," his father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket. "They found this on Mark when he was killed. We thought you might recognize it." Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times. The teacher knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which she had listed all the good things each of Mark's classmates had said about him.

"Thank you so much for doing that," Mark's mother said. "As you can see, Mark treasured it." All of Mark's former class mates started to gather around. Charlie smiled rather sheepishly and said, "I still have my list It's in the top drawer of my desk at home." Chuck's wife said, "Chuck asked me to put his in our wedding album." "I have mine too," Marilyn said. "It's in my diary." Then Vicki, another classmate, reached into her pocketbook, took out her wallet and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group. "I carry this with me at all times, " Vicki said and without batting an eyelash, she continued: "I think we all saved our lists."

That's when the teacher finally sat down and cried. She cried for Mark and for all his friends who would never see him again.

The density of people in society is so thick that we forget that life will end one day. And we don't know when that one day will be. So please, tell the people you love and care for, that they are special and important. Tell them, before it is too late.

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Paid in full

Young man was getting ready to graduate college. For many months he had admired a beautiful sports car in a dealer's showroom, and knowing his father could well afford it, he told him that was all he wanted.

As Graduation Day approached, the young man awaited signs that his father had purchased the car. Finally, on the morning of his graduation his father called him into his private study. His father told him how proud he was to have such a fine son, and told him how much he loved him. He handed his son a beautiful wrapped gift box.

Curious, but somewhat disappointed the young man opened the box and found a lovely, leather-bound Bible. Angrily, he raised his voice at his father and said, "With all your money you give me a Bible?" and stormed out of the house, leaving the holy book.

Many years passed and the young man was very successful in business. He had a beautiful home and wonderful family, but realized his father was very old, and thought perhaps he should go to him. He had not seen him since that graduation day. Before he could make arrangements, he received a telegram telling him his father had passed away, and willed all of his possessions to his son. He needed to come home immediately and take care things. When he arrived at his father's house, sudden sadness and regret filled his heart.

He began to search his father's important papers and saw the still new Bible, just as he had left it years ago. With tears, he opened the Bible and began to turn the pages. As he read those words, a car key dropped from an envelope taped behind the Bible. It had a tag with the dealer's name, the same dealer who had the sports car he had desired. On the tag was the date of his graduation, and the words... PAID IN FULL.

How many times do we miss God's blessings because they are not packaged as we expected?

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