Animal School

Excerpt from "Growing Strong in the Seasons of Life" by Charles Swidoll as read in "Leadership Gold" by John Maxwell.

Once upon a time, the animals decided they should do something meaningful to meet the problems of the new world. So they organized a school.

They adopted an activity curriculem of running, climbing, swimming, and flying. To make it easier to administer, all the animals to all the subjects.

The duck was excellant in swimming. In fact, he was better than his instructor was! However, he only made passing grades in flying, and was very poor in running. Since he was slow in running, he had to almost completely stop swimming and stay after school to practise running. This caused his webbed feet to be so badly worn so he became only average in swimming. But average was quite acceptable, therefore noone worried about it-except the duck.

The rabbit started at the top of his class in running, but developed a nervous twitch in his leg muscles because he had so much makeup work to do in swimming.

The squirrel was excellant in climbing, but he encountered constant frustration in flying class because his teacher made him start from the ground up instead of the thr treetop down. He developed charley horses for overexertion, so he only got a C in climbing and a D in running.

The eagle was a problem child and was severly disciplined for being a non-conformist, he beat all the others to the top, but insisted on using his own way of getting there!

Who would you hire?

A king was in need of a new chauffer to drive his limo for him. He lived in a beautiful castle on top of a mountain. To get to the top, the driver would have to wind around hairpin curves with no guardrails. Three potential drivers were applying for the job and were being interviewed by the king at the castle.

The first man said, "O king, I am a very experienced driver, and today as I was coming up here I couldn't help but imagine what it would be like for me to drive your car. Why, O king, you know those sharp curves on the way here ... the ones with no guardrails? Why, I could drive 60 miles an hour and come within a few feet of the edge, but no one could get you here any quicker or any safer than I."

The king then called in the second man who said, "O king, I couldn't help but overhear the first man. And I want you to know I have been driving for over 30 years, and I tested those hairpin curves. Why, I could drive you up here going 75 miles an hour, taking you within inches of the edge. I would throw gravel all over the hillsides, but you would feel perfectly safe with me."

The king then called in the third man who said, "O king, I couldn't help but overhear the first two guys, and to be honest with you, I am not half as qualified. And to tell you the truth, as I was driving up here today and noticed those curves, they scared me to death. Why, if I were to be your driver, I would crawl up this mountain and would drive as close to the mountian as I could.

Who did the king hire? The drivers represent us and the road our lives. Many professing believers drive as close to the sin line edge as possible, as why why God does not seem close to them.