The Bridge Builder

Sometime during the 1980's I attended an IBM conference. One of the speakers used the following to close his address.

An old man going a lone highway

Came at the evening, cold and gray,

To a chasm vast and wide and steep,

With waters rolling cold and deep.

The old man crossed in the twilight dim,

The sullen stream had no fears for him;

But he turned when safe on the other side

And built a bridge to span the tide.

“Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim near,

“You are wasting your strength with building here.

Your journey will end with the passing day,

You never again will pass this way.

You’ve crossed the chasm deep and wide,

Why build you this bridge at eventide?”

The builder lifted his old gray head,

“Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said

“There followeth after me today

A youth whose feet must pass this way.

The chasm that was as nought to me

To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.

He too, must cross in the twilight dim – 

Good friend, I am building this bridge for him.”

As I read this I couldn't help think of another bridge builder who built a bridge from earth to heaven. God the Father sent his Son to earth to prepare people to cross with him the bridge he was going to build with his blood as he died on the cross for our sin. His death and resurrection established the bridge. It is now our job to guide people to the builder of this bridge so that he can take them across.

Hot Chocolate

A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired.  During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives.  Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an assortment of cups - porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the hot chocolate.

When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said: 'Notice that all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones.  While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. The cup that you're drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate.  In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup; but you consciously went for the best cups... And then you began eyeing each other's cups.

Now consider this: Life is the hot chocolate; your job, money and position in society are the cups.  They are just tools to hold and contain life.  The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have.  Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate God has provided us.  God makes the hot chocolate, man chooses the cups. The happiest people don't have the best of everything.  They just make the best of everything that they have.   Live simply.   Love generously.  Care deeply.   Speak kindly.   And enjoy your hot chocolate.