You’re Doing Good Right Now
By David Chang, Director of Ministry Support
There’s a wonderful story by Leo Tolstoy called The Three Questions. Here’s the summary.
There was a king who was trying to find the answers to three questions to which he got all kinds of answers:
1. When is the best time to begin?
- Right now
- Wait till later
- Plan first
2. Who are the important people?
- The councilors
- The warriors
- The priest
3. What is the most critical thing to do?
- Plan for the future
- Defend the kingdom
- Religious worship
Frustrated by the differing answers, the king disguised himself as a commoner and sought out a hermit known for wisdom. The king found the hermit in the forest cultivating his garden and asked him the three questions. The hermit listened but only kept digging. The king, seeing the hermit was getting tired, offered to take over the tilling. Throughout the day, the king kept asking the questions, but the hermit only listened.
At the end of the day, as the king was getting ready to leave, a severely injured man stumbled out of the woods. The king took him into the hermit’s house, bandaged his wounds and cared for the man all night. In the morning, the injured man, told the king a startling story. The man had followed the king into the forest, planning to kill him in revenge. But now, because the king had saved him, that man begged for the king’s forgiveness and pledged his loyalty to him. The king was glad to have made peace with his enemy and to have gained him as a friend.
As the king prepared to leave, he again asked the hermit his three questions. The hermit smiled and told the king that he had been answered.
1. The most important time is now. If you didn’t stop and help me with my garden, the man would not have found you. If you didn’t stop and care for that man, he would have died.
2. The most important people are right in front of you. If I was not important to you, you would not have helped me garden. If that injured man was not important, you would not have saved him.
3. The most critical thing is to do good for those in front of you. If you didn’t till my garden, the injured man would not have found us. If you didn’t bandage the wounds of the man, he would have died. He would not have been forgiven. You would have not have made a friend.
I think I liked this story because it convicted me.
I worry about the future and wallow in the past. I need to release this to the Lord, and focus on the important “now.”
I need to focus on the people that are in front of me right now, knowing that God intentionally gathered us together in this moment. The rest can wait.
I need to do good for those that are around me right now. The rest can wait.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, help me to be like the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). Open my eyes to see those who You put in front of me. Open my heart to love them as You do. Open my spirit to care for them as You do. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.
P.S. In case you want to read The Three Questions in its entirety, you can read it here.
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