“Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, you are unlikely to step up and take responsibility for making it so.” – Noam Chomsky
The Heavenly Computer Competition
Jesus and Satan were having an ongoing argument about who was better on the computer. They had been going at it for days and frankly God was tired of hearing all the bickering.
Finally fed up, God said, “That’s it! I have had enough. I am going to set up a test that will run for two hours and from those results, I will judge who does the better job.”
So Satan and Jesus sat down at the keyboards and typed away.
They moused.
They faxed.
They e-mailed.
They e-mailed with attachments.
They downloaded.
They did spreadsheets!
They wrote reports.
They created labels and cards.
They created charts and graphs.
They did some genealogy reports.
They did every job known to man.
Jesus worked with heavenly efficiency and Satan was as fast as can be.
Then, ten minutes before their time was up, lightning suddenly flashed across the sky, thunder rolled, rain poured and of course, the power went off.
Satan stared at his blank screen and screamed every curse word known in the underworld.
Jesus just sighed.
Finally, the electricity came back on and each of them restarted their computers. Satan started searching frantically, screaming, “It’s gone! It’s all gone! I lost everything when the power went out!”
Meanwhile, Jesus quietly started printing out all of his files from the past two hours of work. Satan observed this and became irate.
“Wait!” he screamed. “That’s not fair! He cheated! How come he has all his work and I don’t have any”?
God just shrugged and said, “Jesus saves.”
From Obstacles to Opportunities
“What seems to be an obstacle can often be an opportunity to go in a better and more rewarding direction. We only need to stop complaining and start looking at things with fresh eyes. At the very worst, problems require us become smarter, more resourceful, and more determined.” – from the book, ‘HOW SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE THINK, Moving from Ordinary to Extraordinary’