By Pr David Kaluba
Life many times tempts us to compete or compare with others. I do not see anything wrong with learning from others but if it the situation brings misery in your life, then your attitude is wrong and needs to be corrected.
There are individuals who we come across whose main aim is to inspire us. They are sometimes referred to as destiny helpers. But as human nature maybe, instead of getting inspired by them we tend get intimidated by their stature. This intimidation sometimes leads people to do the unthinkable.
A story is told of two individuals who where admitted in the same ward at a particular hospital with different ailments. One was placed by the entrance to the ward whilst another by the window. The condition of the two patients could described as serious but stable.
Every day that came by, they engaged in chatting. Different stories from football to politics dominated their conversations. Once in a while especially in the late afternoons, the man on the window will look over the window and gave a good description of what was going on. He will relate the stories of people playing, walking and those relaxing outside the hospital shelter.
He will describe various vehicles that came to the hospital. He talked about different scenes that included description of make of the ambulances and other vehicles that came to the hospital. He was so clear in his description that the other man could easily get what was being said as if he was seeing it himself. Such was a daily occurrence that closed their day.
One day as they where chatting, the man close to the window choked. The situation got serious and it required a medical person to come through and help. He could not shout and so needed the support of his ward mate. He didn’t do anything until it was late. By the time help was coming to choking the patient, it was too late and he died.
After they cleared the bed, the man who was admitted close to the entrance requested to be moved to the window to which the hospital staff obliged. He had been looking for an opportunity to take this position so that he could see for himself what was going on outside unlike through a third party.
This man had developed jealous because of the scenes that the deceased had described to him. He wanted to be the man by the window. When he had a chance to look over the window, he saw non of the scenes the deceased had described. There was just a big building on the other side that made it impossible for a person to see anything else. The man was surprised to see non of those scenes described. It bothered him a lot.
When the nurse came to do the next round, the man wanted to find out a little bit more about the deceased. He was further shocked to learn that the deceased was actually blind. It immediately occurred to him that the late had done everything possible to give a good life in hospital. He gave a good day’s entertainment under the given circumstances but bue to possible jealous or greediness, he had allowed his attitude to overtake his judgment.
There are many stories in our lives that can be described in similar fashion. There are people who are doing everything to put a smile on our face and to lessen the burden of the problems we are going through. However, our jealous clots our judgment and we fight them to the bitter end. It is then that we realize that we just killed a person whom God was using to encourage.
You have to be careful in life that you don’t fight or get rid of individuals whose only sin is to encourage you.
