Ivan has been stopped and questioned about the death of the merchant whom he visited with the night before. His things are about to be searched. What will the police officer find?

Ivan, the police officer, and the soldiers entered the inn. The soldiers and police officer opened Ivan’s luggage and searched it. Suddenly the officer drew a knife out of a bag, crying, “Whose knife is this?”

Ivan looked, and seeing a bloodstained knife taken from his bag, he was frightened.

“How is it that there is blood on this knife?”

Ivan tried to answer, but could hardly utter a word, and only stammered: “I–I don’t know–not mine.”

Then the police officer said, “This morning the merchant was found in bed with his throat cut. You are the only person who could have done it. The house was locked form the inside, and no one else was there. Here is this bloodstained knife in your bag, and your face and manner betray you! Tell me how you killed him, and how much money you stole.”

Ivan swore he had not done it; that he had no money except the eight thousand roubles of his own, and that the knife was not his. But his voice was broken, his face pale, and he trembled with fear as though he were guilty.

The police officer ordered the soldier to bind Ivan and put him in the cart. Ivan crossed himself and wept. His money and goods were taken from him, and he was sent to the nearest town and imprisoned there. Enquiries as to his character were made in Vladmir. The merchants and other inhabitants of that town said that in former days he used to drink and waste his time, but that he was a good man. The trial came on: he was charged with murdering a merchant from Ryazan, and robbing him of twenty thousand roubles.

—

How quickly life can change! Find out what happens next to Ivan. See you on Monday!

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Story adapted from “God Sees the Truth, But Waits” in Walk in the Light and Twenty-Three Tales by Leo Tolstoy

In the last post Ivan set off for the fair to sell his goods in spite of the bad dream his wife had about his impending trip.

When Ivan had traveled halfway to the fair, he met a merchant whom he knew, and they put up at the same inn for the night. They had some tea together, and then went to bed in adjoining rooms.

It was not Ivan’s habit to sleep late, and, wishing to travel while it was still cool, he woke his driver before dawn, and told him to hitch up the horses. Then Ivan paid his bill and continued his journey.

When he had gone about twenty-five miles, he stopped at an inn for the horses to be fed. Ivan rested awhile then stepped out onto the porch, ordered some tea, and got out his guitar and began to play.

Suddenly a carriage pulled by three horses drove up with tinkling bells. An official stepped out of the carriage followed by two soldiers. He came to Ivan and began to question him, asking him who he was and where he came from. Ivan answered him fully and said, “Won’t you have some tea with me?” But the official kept up the questioning asking him, “Where did you spend last night? Were you alone or with a fellow merchant? Did you see the other merchant this morning? Why did you leave the inn before dawn?”

Ivan wondered why he was asked all these questions, but he described all that had happened and then added, “Why do you question me as if I were a thief or a robber? I am traveling on business of my own, and there is no need to question me.”

Then the official, calling the soldiers, said, “I am the police officer of this district, and I question you because the merchant with whom you spent last night has been found with his throat cut. We must search your things.”

—

Come back for Thursday’s post to see what the police officer finds!

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Story adapted from “God Sees the Truth, But Waits” in Walk in the Light and Twenty-Three Tales by Leo Tolstoy

My next series of posts is a story by Leo Tolstoy that I have adapted. The tale asks the question, “Where is God when evil is happening?” The story comes from Tolstoy’s book Walk in the Light and Twenty-Three Tales. Tolstoy brings us face to face with the mystery of evil as it envelopes a simple Russian merchant and changes his life. As the story unfolds before you in my weekly posts, ask yourself, “If evil comes uninvited into my life, will it make me bitter or better?”

Once, in Russia, in the town of Vladmir, there lived a young merchant named Ivan. He had a good business, a loving family, and a house of his own. Ivan was a handsome and fun loving man. In his youth he liked to party. But after he married he gave up drinking, except for now and then.

One summer day Ivan was going to the fair to sell his goods, and as he said good-bye to his family his wife said to him, “Ivan, don’t go today; I’ve had a bad dream about you.”

Ivan laughed and said, “You are afraid I will spend all our money at the fair.”

His wife replied: “I do not know what I am afraid of; all I know is that I had a bad dream! I dreamt you returned from town, and when you took off your cap I saw that all your hair had turned grey.”

Ivan laughed. “That’s a lucky sign,” he said.  “See if I don’t sell all my goods, and bring you some presents from the fair.”

So he said good-bye to his family and drove away.

—

Next time, a chance encounter will change Ivan’s life forever. See you at the next post!

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Story adapted from “God Sees the Truth, But Waits” in Walk in the Light and Twenty-Three Tales by Leo Tolstoy

How do we put an attitude of gratitude into practice “for what we are about to receive?

Once the Master was at prayer. The disciples came up to him and said, “Sir, teach us how to pray.” This is how he taught them…

Two men were once walking through a field when they saw an angry bull. Instantly they made for the nearest fence with the bull in hot pursuit. It soon became evident to them that they were not going to make it so one man shouted to the other, “We’ve had it! Nothing can save us. Say a prayer. Quick!”

The other shouted back, “I’ve never prayed in my life and I don’t have a prayer for this occasion.”

“Never mind. The bull is catching up with us. Any prayer will do.”

“Well, I’ll say the one I remember my father used to say before meals: For what we are about to receive, Lord, make us truly grateful.”

Here are three simple suggestions for practicing an attitude of gratitude:

1. Speak your gratitude. When we say “thank you” we acknowledge to ourselves and to the people we say “thank you” to that we are grateful for what they have done for us. Thanking people who in some way serve us, gas station attendants, people who hold the door for us, cashiers, customer service providers, helps us not take for granted what we have been given and acknowledges the giver as someone who is important to our well-being.

2. Write your gratitude. Lately, I’ve been recording in my journal one thing about my day for which I am grateful. Sometimes when I sit down to write my gratitude nothing comes immediately to mind. But with just a few minutes of reflection I usually discover things I have taken for granted for which I am grateful, like being alive, my health, my safety.

3. Pay your gratitude forward. To express your gratitude for what you have received, give something to or do something for someone else. Paying our gratitude forward can start a chain reaction of gratitude that changes the world, one person at a time.

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity…. It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.” Melodie Beattie

Are we still grateful to God when life does not go our way?

Once the Master was at prayer. The disciples came up to him and said, “Sir, teach us how to pray.” This is how he taught them…

Two men were once walking through a field when they saw an angry bull. Instantly they made for the nearest fence with the bull in hot pursuit. It soon became evident to them that they were not going to make it so one man shouted to the other, “We’ve had it! Nothing can save us. Say a prayer. Quick!”

The other shouted back, “I’ve never prayed in my life and I don’t have a prayer for this occasion.”

“Never mind. The bull is catching up with us. Any prayer will do.”

“Well, I’ll say the one I remember my father used to say before meals: For what we are about to receive, Lord, make us truly grateful.”

Are we still grateful to God when the angry bull is charging and we are not going to make the fence? Does our attitude of gratitude fluctuate up and down with our circumstances? How do we stay connected to God with an attitude of gratitude when life is filled with pain and suffering?

The prayer, “Lord, for what we are about to receive make us truly grateful,” is the secret to maintaining an attitude of gratitude.  That prayer is a prayer of acceptance much like the “Serenity Prayer” popular in Twelve Step Groups:

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.”

When we pray for the grace to accept our circumstances as coming from the hand of God who loves us and is always “for us” we begin to cultivate an attitude of gratitude that keeps us connected to God even when life is hard. 

To accept our circumstances as coming from the hand of God who loves us and is always for us we need to trust God that he will make all things right in his time.

The second half of the Serenity Prayer, that is not as well known as the first half, talks about the attitude of trust that produces an attitude of gratitude:

“Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will; that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him forever in the rest.” Amen. - Reinhold Niebuhr

When the angry bull is charging may our prayer be, “Lord, for what we are about to receive make us truly grateful.”

Gratitude is an attitude that connects us to God because it acknowledges our dependence upon our Creator.

The story of “The Two Men and the Angry Bull” comes from Anthony de Mello’s book, Taking Flight. The story has much to teach us about gratitude.

With this post my approach to this blog will change. I am going deeper instead of wider. Rather than give you a new story with each blog post I will stay with a story through several posts reflecting on the different images and themes within the story. Stories always have several layers to them, it is my intent to point you to some of these layers to help you reflect on the wisdom that each story contains.

So, here’s the story of “Two Men and the Angry Bull.”

Once the Master was at prayer. The disciples came up to him and said, “Sir, teach us how to pray.” This is how he taught them…

Two men were once walking through a field when they saw an angry bull. Instantly they made for the nearest fence with the bull in hot pursuit. It soon became evident to them that they were not going to make it so one man shouted to the other, “We’ve had it! Nothing can save us. Say a prayer. Quick!”

The other shouted back, “I’ve never prayed in my life and I don’t have a prayer for this occasion.”

“Never mind. The bull is catching up with us. Any prayer will do.”

“Well, I’ll say the one I remember my father used to say before meals: For what we are about to receive, Lord, make us truly grateful.”

—

When do we choose to connect with God? Some of us are “hatching,” “matching,” and “dispatching” connectors(baptism or christening, wedding, and funeral). Others of us are “holiday” connectors (Christmas, Easter, Hanukkah, Ramadan). Others of us, like the two men in our story, are “angry bull” connectors, reaching out for God when we are in trouble.

Now all of these times are important and appropriate times to connect to our Creator. I would like to suggest that for those of us who long for an ongoing connection to God an attitude of gratitude keeps our hearts tied to God all the time.

With just a little reflection each day we can find something for which to thank God for: another day to live, our health, our families, our friends, the food on our table, the clothes on our back, the roof over our head.

Have you ever thought about starting a “gratitude journal” in which you write one thing every day you are thankful for? I invite you to try it for a week and see if the quality of your connection to God improves. You can tell me what you’ve discovered with this little experiment by leaving a comment on this blog!

“If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, ‘thank you,’ that would suffice.”  Meister Eckhart

Blaise Pascal wrote that there is a God shaped-vacuum in the heart of every person. That’s why we experience the yearning for God that the story of “The Baal Shem Tov and the Doctor” spoke about in the last post. So how do we find fulfillment for this yearning for God? The story of “Mordecai” tells us!

Once upon a time there was a very pious Jewish couple. They had married with great love and their love never died. Their greatest hope was to have a child so their love could walk the earth with joy.

Yet there were problems. And since they were very pious, they prayed and prayed and prayed. With that, along with considerable other efforts, lo and behold the wife conceived, When she conceived she laughed louder than Sarah laughed when she conceived Isaac. And the child leapt in her womb more joyously than John the Baptist leaped in the womb of Elizabeth when Mary visited her. And nine months later there came rumbling into the world a delightful little boy.

They named him Mordecai, and the sun and the moon were his toys. He was rambunctious, zestful, gulping down the days and dreaming through the nights. He grew in age and wisdom and grace until it was time for him to go to synagogue and learn the Word of God.

The night before his studies were to begin his parents sat Mordecai down and told him how important the Word of God was. They stressed that without the Word of God Mordecai would become an autumn leaf in winter’s wind. He listened wide-eyed.

Yet the next day he never arrived at the synagogue. Instead he found himself in the woods swimming in the lake and climbing the trees.

When he came home that night, the news had spread throughout the small village. Everyone knew of his shame. His parents were beside themselves. They did not know what to do.

So they called in the behavior modificationists who modified Mordecai’s behavior, so there was no behavior of Mordecai that had not been modified. Nevertheless, the next day he found himself in the woods, swimming in the lake and climbing the trees.

So they called in the psychoanalysts, who unblocked Mordecai’s blockages, so there were no more blocks for Mordecai to be blocked by. Nevertheless, the next day he found himself in the woods, swimming in the lake and climbing the trees.

His parents grieved for their beloved son. There seemed to be no hope.

It was at that time the great rabbi visited the village. And the parents said, “Ah! Perhaps the rabbi!” So they took Mordecai to the rabbi and told him their tale of woe. The rabbi bellowed, “Leave the boy with me and I will have a talking to him.”

Mordecai’s parents were terrified. So he would not go to synagogue, but to leave their beloved son with this lion of a man…But they had come this far and so they left him.

Now Mordecai stood in the hallway and the great rabbi stood in his parlor. HE beckoned, “Boy, come here.” Trembling, Mordecai came forward.

And then the great rabbi picked him up and held him silently against his heart. At first the boy was stiff and afraid. But after a while, as he felt the heart of the great rabbi beating beneath him, his heart began to beat with the rabbi’s heart until their two hearts beat as one and Mordecai began to relax in the rabbi’s arms.

His parents came to get him and took him home. The next day he went to synagogue to learn the Word of God. And when he was done, he went to the woods. And the Word of God became one with the word of the woods which became one with the word of Mordecai. And he swam in the lake. And the Word of God became one with the word of the lake which became one with the word of Mordecai. And he climbed in the trees. And the Word of God became one with the word of the trees which became one with the word of Mordecai. And Mordecai himself grew up to become a great man. People came to him who ere seized with inner panic and with him they found peace. People came to him who were without anybody and with him they found communion. People came to him with no exits and with him they found a way out.

And he often said, “I first learned the Word of God when the great rabbi held me against his heart.”

The yearning for God that we feel deep in our hearts finds its fulfillment on the breast of Jesus Christ, the Great Rabbi, whose heart beats with the Word of God for us, and that word is “I love you.” Be still and let your heat beat in time with the heart of the Great Rabbi.

—

Wrestling with a problem, pressure, or pain? Maybe a story will help. Go to http://www.hearttales.net/sg.html  and tell me what’s troubling you and I’ll send you a story for you to reflect upon that may give you a new perspective on your situation.

On our adventure toward wholeness we have identified two of the three connections necessary to achieve wholeness: connection to our true self, and connection to others. Over the next several posts we will be looking at the third and most important connection necessary to achieve wholeness: connection to God.

We begin with the story of “The Baal Shem Tov and the Doctor” as told by storyteller, Doug Lipman.

Once, a famous doctor met one of his patients on the street. without a word of greeting, the doctor said, “I told you not to walk on that leg until it heals!”

“But it IS healed,” said the man.

“Impossible! I saw the wound in that leg. It will take months to heal.”

“I went to another kind of healer, doctor. I went to a mystical rabbi, the one they call the Baal Shem Tov.”

The doctor narrowed his eyes, then simply walked away.

A week later, the doctor rapped loudly on the Ball Shem Tov’s door. When the door opened, he said, “I hear you claim to be a healer!”

The Baal Shem Tove looked at his visitor. “God is the healer, my friend. Come in!”

The doctor did not move. “Let us examine each other, ” he said. “Whoever best diagnoses the sickness of the other will prove to be the better doctor.”

The Baal Shem Tov smiled. “As you wish. But please do me the favor of coming in!”

Once inside, the doctor began his examination of the Baal Shem Tov. The doctor poked him, pinched him, gazed in his ears, and tapped on his knees. After an hour, the doctor said, “You have no sickness that I can find.”

“I am not surprised that you could not find it,” said the Baal Shem Tov. “I so desire the presence of God that my heart cries out in pain when I cannot feel it. My sickness is this constant yearning for God.” The Baal Shem Tov looked at the doctor a long while. “Let me now examine you.”

The Baal Shem Tov took the doctor’s hands and gazed into his eyes. At last the rabbi said, “Have you lost something very valuable?”

“As a matter of fact, ” said the doctor,” I once had a large jewel, but it was stolen from me.”

“Ah! That is your sickness!” said the Baal Shem Tov.

“What? Missing my diamond?”

“No. My sickness is yearning after God. Your sickness is that you have forgotten that you ever had that desire.”

The doctor sucked in a breath. In a moment, a tear flowed down his cheek. One tear turned to many. Still holding the hands of the Baal Shem Tov, he began to sob. “Please,” he said. “Teach me how to yearn!”

“With God’s help,” said the Baal Shem Tov, “your healing has already begun.”

Connection to God begins with recognizing our yearning to have the God-shaped vacuum in our heart filled.

—

Wrestling with a problem, pressure, or pain? Maybe a story will help. Go to http://www.hearttales.net/sg.html  and tell me what’s troubling you and I’ll send you a story for you to reflect upon that may give you a new perspective on your situation.