A happy and meaningful life demands a continuous input, perseverance, and creativity. Your choices and actions determine what your life would be like, and when you encounter difficulties on your journey, you should always remember that God exposes you to challenges only because He knows that you are strong enough to face them. A story by an anonymous author has recently started to circulate on the Internet, which moral is to never give up on life because your faithfulness, individuality, strength, and determination will help you to achieve happiness and success.
The Fern and the Bamboo
One day, a very discontent and discouraged person decided to quit on his life, his job, relationship, and spirituality. Before giving up, he went to the woods to have one last conversation with God. The man asked God to give him one reason why he shouldn’t quit. And, then God told the man to look at the fern and the bamboo in the forest. God said that He planted the fern and the bamboo seeds, gave them light and water, and took good care of them. The beautiful fern quickly started to grow, but there was nothing growing from the bamboo seed.
Even though the bamboo didn’t grow, God never gave up on it. In the next four years the fern grew more plentiful and vibrant, but still, nothing came from the bamboo seed. Yet, God never quit on it. Then, in the fifth year, a tiny sprout appeared from the earth. The sprout was seemingly small and insignificant compared to the fern. However, only six months later, the bamboo tree rose to over 100 feet tall.
God explained the man that He never gives challenges to His creations that they cannot handle. The bamboo had spent 5 years in growing roots, just like the man has been growing roots all this time while he has been struggling. God has never quitted on the bamboo and He will never quit on the man.
Then, He added that the man should never compare himself to others. Although both the bamboo and the fern make the forest beautiful, both of them have a completely different purpose. God assured the man that eventually he will rise high because, just like these trees, every man has a unique purpose. The man wanted to know how high he would rise, to which God replied that he would rise as high as he can.
When you feel like giving up, instead of telling God how huge your problem is, tell the problem how great your God is. The faithfulness signifies your devotion to God and your willingness to provide assistance and generosity to others. Every individual quality is performed by each person in a distinct manner. So, no matter how hard life gets, you should always remember that there is a specific purpose for each of us waiting to be found and that you should never compare yourself to anyone else because God has a different plan for all of us.
