THE DESTRUCTIVE NATURE OF GREED Are you the type who always wished you had all to yourself in the workplace, home, church, even in our relationship? WATCH OUT!!!!! Proverbs 28:25(ESV): A greedy man stirs up strife, but the one who trusts in the Lord will be enriched. Proverbs 11:24 (ESV): One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want. Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction. I find it odd- the greed of mankind. People only like you for as long as they perceive they can get what they want from you. Or for as long as they perceive you are who they want you to be. But I like people for all of their changing surprises, the thoughts in their heads, the warmth that changes to cold and the cold that changes to warmth... for being human. The rawness of being human delights me. Greed has landed many people in trouble. According to 1 Timothy 6:9, Paul says that “But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction”. Let me share with you a story of Crow who was very greedy and at the end suffered a painful end. Once there lived a rich man. He was very kind and generous man. He gave away a part of his income in charity. He showed special kindness to the animals and birds. One day, a pigeon entered his kitchen and built her nest in an empty vegetable basket. Being kind hearted, the merchant told the cook to let the pigeon stay in his kitchen. The cook gave her grains and other things to eat. The pigeon thus had a home. A crow was once passing by the merchant’s house. He saw the pigeon comfortably sitting in her nest in the kitchen. He could also smell the delicious food that the cook was cooking. He smelt the cheese and the fish curry. He was very greedy. He wanted to eat the tasty food. He made up his mind to find an entrance to the kitchen. Next day, when the pigeon came out of the kitchen, the crow approached her and befriended her. At first, the pigeon did not want to make friendship with the crow. However, when the crow told her that he was very jointly, as his friends had gone away to another city, she felt sorry for him and made him her friend. The crow made it a practice to accompany the pigeon wherever she went. One day, he requested her to show him her nest. The pigeon took him to the kitchen of the wealthy merchant. “The cook here is very kind. He often gives me tasty food to eat”. She told him. Just then, the cook came to the kitchen and saw the crow. He was about to drive him away when he thought of his master’s kindness towards the birds. Therefore, he let the crow stay in the kitchen. He hung another basket for him. The crow had wished this to happen. Thus, he also started living in the kitchen. However, unlike pigeon, he stole food in the absence of the cook. One day, the merchant had invited some guests. He came to the kitchen and instructed his cook to make tasty fish curry for the guests. The crow was happy to hear this. That day, he did not go out of the kitchen. He watched the activities of the cook. The cook took out a large fish out of the refrigerator. He cut in into pieces. Then he fried the pieces and mixed spices to make a tasty curry. The crow could hardly wait to taste the curry. The cook poured the curry into a bowl and went out to fetch some vegetables from the garden. Here was the crow’s chance to taste the curry. He stealthily went near the bowl of fish and removed the plate that covered it. The plate fell with a big bang. The cook rushed into the kitchen and caught the crow red handed. He had a large piece of fish in his beak. The cook was very angry with the crow. He said, “I let you stay in my kitchen. I gave you tasty food to eat. And now you are stealing food. You are an ungrateful creature. I must punish you”. So saying, he plucked out all his feathers and threw the featherless crow into a garbage can. Unfortunately the crow met a dreadful end. In the evening, the pigeon returned to her nest. She saw the dead featherless crow lying in the dustbin. She understood what might have happened to the crow. She also understood why he had not gone out the kitchen with her that day. She said aloud, “one should never be greedy. Greed leads to nothing, but downfall. This crow was not satisfied with what the kind cook gave him. He tried to steal fish and met with a dreadful end”. MORAL: The greed of gain has no time or limit to its capaciousness. It’s one object is to produce and consume. It has pity neither for beautiful nature nor for living human beings. It is ruthlessly ready without a moments hesitation to crush beauty and life. Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are always asking, Whats in it for me? Greed is an imperfection that defiles the mind; hate is an imperfection that defiles the mind; delusion is an imperfection that defiles the mind In his love for the world, the greedy is like the silkworm: the more it wraps in its cocoon, the less it has of escaping from it, until it dies of grief Stay BLESSED and SAFE as you learn to be FREE FROM GREEDINESS Please do not just LIKE, but READ, TAG, COMMENT and SHARE for you friends to benefit.
Posted on: Mon, 22 Dec 2014 10:51:25 +0000
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