THE FORMULA TO REAL RICHES

I recall reading a story once about these two men who shared a hospital room. One of the men had lung cancer and to help drain the fluid from his lungs was allowed to sit up for an hour each afternoon. His bed, was next to the room's only window. The other man spent all his time flat on his back and could not get up. The two men talked for hours on end. They spoke of their wives and families, homes, jobs, the years they had spent in the military and even where they had vacationed. Every afternoon when the man in the bed by the window was allowed to sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he was seeing outside their window. The man in the other bed began to live for those times when his roommate would describe to him all the activity and color of the world outside. The man in the bed by the window would describe how the window overlooked a park with a lovely lake. Ducks and swans played on the water and children sailed their model boats. The man would tell how young lovers walked arm in arm amidst the rows of flowers of every color of the rainbow. He told how grand old trees graced the landscape, and he could see a fine view of the city skyline in the distance. As the man by the window described all that he saw in detail, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine the picturesque scene. One warm afternoon the man by the window began describing a parade passing by. While the other man could not hear the music, he could see it in his mind's eye as his roommate portrayed it with his descriptive words. Suddenly, a selfish thought entered his mind. It didn't seem fair that the other man alone was allowed to experience all the pleasures of seeing everything while he himself never got to see anything? At first the man felt ashamed. But as the long days passed the man allowed his heart to be filled with envy which quickly turned into resentment, jealousy and bitterness. He began to brood over it and he found himself unable to even sleep. At that point the man had only one thought that ruled every other thought.  Late one night as he lay staring at the ceiling, the man by the window began to cough. He was choking on the fluid in his lungs. The other man watched in the shadow of the barley lit room as his roommate struggled, trying to grasp for the button to call for help. Listening from across the room the man lay still. He never bothered to push his own help button which would have brought the nurse running in. His bitterness had turned his heart into the saddest condition that a human heart could be in. In  a few short minutes the coughing and choking stopped, as did the sound of the man’s breathing and there was only silence. The following morning as the nurse arrived she found the lifeless body of the man by the window, she was saddened and quickly called the hospital attendants to take him away. As soon as it seemed appropriate to the other man, he asked if he could be moved over to the bed by the window. The nurse was happy to assist him and made the switch. Slowly and painfully he propped himself high enough to take his first look at the world outside. Finally he thought, he would have the joy of seeing it all himself. As he strained in the bed and turned to look out the window that his deceased roommate had once laid, he could not believe his eyes. He discovered that the window faced a blank wall. The man asked the nurse, what she thought could have compelled his deceased roommate to describe such wonderful things outside their window. The nurse responded that she did not know, because the man was blind and could not even see the wall. Perhaps, she said, he just wanted to encourage you. While I am not sure if this story is true or not, I do know that it provides us with a tremendous moral that we can learn from. There is real happiness in taking our eyes off our own problems and focusing on and encouraging others in theirs. For shared grief is half the sorrow, but happiness when shared, is doubled. The formula to real riches is not found in the world, but by the selfless things that we do for others. We are not to be overcome with the evil that tempts our hearts to do wrong. But according to Romans 12:21 we are to overcome the evil that tempts us by doing the good and right thing.

Hold Fast,

Bren