Monday, December 7, 2015

The Barber, the Athiest, and the man in the box

Missionaries in my new zone
*I'm the good looking one.
Great Parable: 

Once a bearded man walked into a barber shop to cut his beard. He decided it was time, to shave it off, so he found a barbershop and went inside.  When the barber came out, the who men talked about the cut.  Once they agreed upon the plan, the barber started trimming.  

As the barber was shaving the man, they started talking.  Eventually the conversation led to religion.  The bearded man asked the barber if he believed in God and the barber said "No way. There's no way God exists.  If there really was a being so perfect and that knows all things, how could he watch all the suffering that exists on earth and not act?  How could he not help his children?"

 The bearded man in hearing this, looked out the window and saw another bearded man and said, "Well, I don't believe in barbers."  The barber gasped and said "What?! How could you not believe in barbers? I'm right here!" 

The bearded man said, "Well, there's tons of people with beards all over the world.  Some of them are really ugly. If barbers really existed, then why would they not help all the ugly bearded people?"  When the barber heard this, he said, "Well I would help everyone of them, if they decided to come to me.  My shops is always open.  All they have to do is come inside, and I will help them."

The bearded man smiled and said, "It's the same with God.  His shop is always open.  He hears every prayer.  All they have to do is come to Him, and He will help them.  He won't force them, they have to come on their own. But once they are there, he will do everything necessary to help clean them up."

Fun find:

We knocked five doors this week in a rich part of my area to show my companion what missionaries do in the states haha.  We were confronted by an athiest who is the professor for philosophy at the nearest collage.  When we arrived, we didn't say one word about who we were, before he spilled out this long speech about how God doesn't exsist and how humans just have the need to believe in something bigger then them.  Except for him.  He doesn't believe in anything.  And he made it very clear that he's very content with who he is.  He doesn't need any help.  I asked him if he had ever prayed, and he said no.  We offered to pray with him, but he refused.  That's ok, because we'll pray for him later when we get back to our apartment.  Ha. 

Best reality check this week:

This week we visited a less active that contacted us in the street.  He told us he left the church 30 years ago but has always known it to be true.  This man lives with his wife and 9 children in a little tiny brick house by the shore in the swamp area.  When he came to the coast, 20 years ago, he literally arived with nothing.  He lived in a little wooden box for a long time.  But he says that God has never abandoned him.  He knows this is true because he found a plastic sign to put on the roof for when it rains.  And when he had no money, he found food for his kids. Now he has a "house" which is great.  But the real blessing is that this man can really see the blessings the Lord has put in his life.  We could all learn a lot from him.  

During this holiday season, choose to look for God.  He's everywhere.  He has his arms streched out to recieve us.  But we have to look and choose to come unto Him.  Search and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened up unto you. 

Merry Christmas friends, 

Elder Burk

No comments:

Post a Comment