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Today's life line has to do with trail blazing, walking the road less traveled, and doing what is right despite the difficulty.
The following parable was written by an unknown author. There are several versions of it on the web and I have taken the liberty to adapt a version here for your consumption. Hope you enjoy.
THE KING & THE POISONED WELL
There was once a wise king who ruled over a vast kingdom. He was feared for his might and loved for his wisdom. Now in the heart of the city, there was a well with pure and crystalline waters from which the king and all the inhabitants drank. When all were asleep, three witches entered the city and poured seven drops of a strange liquid into the well. They said that henceforth all who drink this water shall become mad.The next day, all the people drank of the water, but not the king. And the people began to say, "The king is mad and has lost his reason. Look how strangely he behaves. We cannot be ruled by a madman, so he must be dethroned."
The king grew very fearful, for his subjects were preparing to rise against him. He had a difficult choice: risk being destroyed by his beloved subjects or drink from the poisoned well and become mad like them. So that evening, he ordered a golden goblet to be filled from the well, and he drank deeply. The next day, there was great rejoicing among the people, for their beloved king had finally regained his reason.
--Author Unknown
How many times in your life have you allowed yourself to do what is ordinary for the sake of comfort? Some people drink poison every day just to fit in with the crowd.
Well they say that the path of the righteous is narrow and long. It is beset by all sorts of obstacles, barriers, and evils that threaten to knock you off of the path. If you value your social role, status, possessions, relationships, or even your own life more than righteousness, then you will go the way of the king in the parable. You will drink from the well again and again in life. However, if you will risk standing out, risk being different, risk it all for love of righteousness, there is a greater reward.
Let your light shine and dim it for no one and nothing. You only have one life to live and one chance to get it right.
J
Interesting stuff. This has some great practical applications in life, conformism isn't the road to happiness.
ReplyDeleteExcept, this parable says just that. If you dont join in with your surroundings you will be deemed mad. No matter how absurd these ideas are. The moral isnt that you should stand aside, but that you have to blend in.
ReplyDeleteYou can be a blind, deluded, mindless slave; drone; clone; zombie sheep if you want. I prefer to be me.
ReplyDeletehttp://josministries.prophpbb.com
http://exposingchristianity.com
Dose anyone remember this as a cartoon on the " Rocky and Bullwinkle Show" that aired in the early 60s ? ? ?
ReplyDeleteMarco Rubio and all the other sane republicans who have now decided to drink from the well of madness!
ReplyDeleteI agree with the poster who says this parable champions conformism. In Part II of the parable, the king and all of his subjects perish in horrible torturous deaths brought on by food poisoning after they all defecated in each other's cereal. As each person died, the light of reason flickered sadly across their eyes.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletei believe you may've missed the point in the allegory of the well, as well as robert frost's poem. the well isn't really about conformism so much as it is about relativity. what's proper or "sane" isn't a fixed concept; but exists only in the eye of the beholder.
ReplyDeleteI’ve always connected with this story.
ReplyDeleteBut also,
This what happens when you not on the side of Witches.