INSPIRATION

Avoiding The Shark

The story is told about an eleven year old boy named Smith who lived in Hawaii. Like every teenager, the sky was his limit; he felt that as long as he could imagine anything, then it was possible achieving it. One day he took a decision that was to change his perspective about life. Smith decided to swim a 1-1/4-mile –wide bay. Feeling on top of the world, he set out through the deep waters. Not long into his adventure, the waves started swelling and he couldn’t have a proper view of where he was heading. About halfway across, he realized he had no energy left himself drowning.

   Then, all of a sudden, he was a fin a few feet away. There was no doubt about it. What he had just seen was a shark. Smith, who hitherto had no strength to complete his adventure, made it in record time safely to shore. It’s amazing how we could find strength from nowhere when it came to the issue of saving life. Smith made to shore because as far he was concerned, it was better to drown than to be eaten by shark. At that very moment, the most important thing to him was avoiding the shark and not just crossing the bay.

  You know that’s the way it is with so many of us. Out of fear, we do things we thought were previously impossible. The word fear connotes a picture of negativity. But we do know that it also compels us to greater things. It actually motivates. I remember the story of the man who worked for 4.00pm to midnight shift, and he always walked home after work. One night, the was shining so brightly he decided to take a shortcut through the cemetery, which would save him roughly a half-mile walk. There were no incidents involved so he repeated the process on a regular basis, always following the same path. Another night, as he was walking his route through the cemetery, he did not realize that during the day, a grave had been dug in the centre of his path. He stepped right into that grave and immediately started desperately trying to get out. His best effort failed him, and after a few minutes, he decided to relax and wait until morning when someone would help him out.

  He sat down in the corner and was half-asleep when a drunk stumbled into the grave. His arrival roused the shift worker since the drunk was desperately trying to climb out, clawing frantically at the sides. Our hero reached out his hand, touched the drunk on the leg, and said, “friend, you can’t get out here…”- but he did! If you were the man won’t you? Though he tried getting out but didn’t succeed, when what he thought to be a ghost touched him, out of fear, he was able to jump out of the grave.

  Dear reader, God has given you the potential to succeed. You have all it takes to get to the top. That potential is already in you. That potential will not be released until you take your thoughts, plans, and imaginations and put them in action. Action they say speaks louder than words. Action has re-written history. Yours is the next success story.