parable: The Long distance runners

Once there was a Long distance runner, He loved to run and had been doing so for a long time. The Runners passion was so great that he would often talk to his friends with great enthusiasm about running that many wanted to join him in running too.

As such it was no surprise that when he set himself his greatest challenge yet, to run the length of Britain His closest friends all agreed to join him in the race.

I say his closest friends, there were of course some exceptions, a few people scoffed at his idea, questioned his sanity and how doing this race would actually help his, and others, lives. But despite this he still had a group of friends eager to run this race with him.

The day finally arrived and the runner turned up at Lands end and sure enough there was the rowdy gang otherwise known as his friends. As he looked around he saw that many of his friends had brought tents, large camping bags, great sums of money, laptops with internet connections and some even their work!

He could barely believe his eyes, it was almost as though they had brought their whole lives with them and it would certainly be impossible for them to run so heavily laden! He started to plead with his friends to take off their bags, he had already planned and paid for the places they would stay at along the way, but they wouldn't listen and started the race with their heavy bags on their backs.

Sure enough when lunchtime arrived the friends who hadn't taken a backpack arrived at the restaurant the runner had booked. As they sat down for a meal the Runner picked up the phone and started calling all the mobile phones of the friends with backpacks. They were some distance behind but were in good spirits, they too had stopped for a meal they had brought with them in their backpacks. Again the runner encouraged them to leave their packs behind and to simply run without them (rather than walk as they had been) but the friends wouldn't listen.

When the first evening came and the non backpack runners arrived at their hotel again the long distance runner called the backpacked runners. By this point a couple had already stopped, they had found that running with a backpack was just too hard work and they weren't going to continue. Those left were in a variety of states, some were determinded that they were going to finish the race, no matter what. Others were starting to feel less certain and had started to wonder if Running really was for them at all. It seamed just a bit too uncomfortable and when they could just drive to the finish line there seamed no real point in running. Plus all this camping seamed rather dangerous, why weren't they just at home in bed?

Over the next few days the backpacked runners slowely but surely stopped running, some found their backpacks were just too heavy, some had got lost and all lost faith in what they were doing. After a while their mobiles had stopped working and the friend, despite all his attempts to call them just couldn't get through. Meanwhile the other friends who ran with the Runner reached the finish line and celebrated the race they had run.

The Parable of Wedding Guests

3 men were invited to their friends wedding. They had know this friend for such a long time that they were all certain they were within the inner circle and possibly could even contend for the position of best man or at least ushers.

There was, however, one large problem. 

They all hated the bride! They couldn't stand her!

When they first met her 2 of the friends had gotten on very well with her (one had instantly disliked her) but other time elements of her personality had grated on them. She could come out with some horrible comments, her friends were really not nice, she was far too middle class and very uptight and she could be such a kill joy!

They knew the feeling was reciprocated to themselves as well, they could see that she thought they were too mess, they spent too much time with people they really should and above all She knew they avoided spending time with her.

And so as the day of the wedding came nearer the friends of the groom one by one came up to him and expressed their concern about his bride to be. They revealed of their complaints and the Groom listened carefully. He admitted that she could be all these things, and worse, but insisted that he loved her despite all these things and that they should too.

They day of the wedding came and the Groom and Bride had reach fever pitch levels of excitement, everything was set and at last they were to be united.

As the groom waited at the alter he looked around to see his friends. Sure enough one of his friends was there in the church on THE Brides side of the church. The groom went over and thanked the friend for coming. The friend replied that since the Groom loved the Bride, so would he.

The Groom looked round further for the other friends and saw them lurking outside. He went out to meet them.

He asked why they weren't inside, why were they not even dressed for the wedding. They revealed that although they loved the groom as a brother they hated the Bride, knew it was a mistake and pleaded with the Groom to listen to them. The Groom was taken aback. He once again opened the invitation to come in to the wedding, and that if they really loved him they would love his Bride too. But the two friends agreed they could never love the bride, that they would still be the grooms friend but not when the Bride was around.

After that the two friends left confident that their friendship with the groom was still in tact and went of to complain about the Bride as they enjoyed a pint at the pub. 

Unfortunately the two friends never saw the Groom again.

The parable of the Dancer

Jenny stood at the side of the hall watching all the other girls spin and twirl with glowing faces as their partners lead them across the dance floor.

She had heard about these dances and had always though that they were so stifling and ridged, not like this free flowing, energetic and, dare she say it FUN event. In fact when Jenny was younger she had often go along to dances in the hope that they would be as free as she was watching here, yet they had sadly disappointed. Her dance partners had always rigidly followed each step and been so serious about insuring they were following the correct technique, she sometimes wondered if they cared more about insure the dance was right than actually enjoying the dance itself!

So here she was again, at a dance, all be it one that was like she had always imagined dances should be like, and she had barely taken 3 steps from the door! In the past she had always had to go up to a guy from the group who was resting on the side and ask him to dance with her in an attempt to force herself into the dance. Sometimes it resulted in the guy firing back a load of questions about what styles she knew to make sure she was up to the task of dancing with him, sometimes they had even taken a glance at what she was wearing and quickly, and not too discreetly, walked else where and started to discuss her with the other dancers.

It was for this reason that Jenny didn’t like dances…so why was she here again?

As she rested on the outside watching in on the dance, it happened. A guy came up and asked her to dance! She had never had this happen before at any of the previous dances! She politely turned him down pointing out that she was still unfamiliar with the dance styles and moves the other dances were doing and didn’t want to make a mistake. The guy told her it didn’t matter, opened the invitation again (which once again Jenny quickly refused for lack of confidence) and so the guy invited her to sit with some of the other dancers who were resting and have a drink.

Jenny couldn’t believe it, she had never been welcomed by the other dancers like this! Usually the other female dancers got very upset at the thought of competition for dance partners and yet here they were talking to her as thought they had been friends for years. She had been invited to dance by 3 different men since the initial offer and although she had so far turned down every offer she had certainly grown in confidence and the other girls had been encouraging to give it a try, even if she got it wrong, no one would care.

And so she accepted an offer, and there she was dancing, free, getting her steps wrong, stepping on toes…and yet she was free. Surely this was what dancing was all about. 

The parable of the "Kind Giant"

I want to tell you a story about a Giant.

Now this Giant was a kind and gentle Giant, certainly not the type who went around terrorising villages. As such he was loved by the local townspeople for all the good that he did. Protecting the townspeople from other giants, hosting regular feasts, helping those in need and even acting as judge in the local court. The whole town was very pleased and regularly spoke highly of the Giant to each other, an act the giant did nothing to stop the townsfolk praise.

One day a villager came to the giant, he told the giant about some trouble that was rising in the village. Some people from a nearby tribe had settled on the outside of the village, not within the realms of the villagers terrain but very close to it. They had started to grow their own wheat there and had even been using the same water supply as the villagers.

At first the Giant wondered why the villagers were worried. Surely this had nothing to do with the villagers? After all it was outside the village territory. However he realised that this was the territory the villagers would need to expand into if the village grew, and on top of that there was the risk of the new village expanding into the Giants village.

The Giant thought long and hard about what to do, he thought about his villagers and although he was sure they didn't currently need the territory on the other side of the river his mind was full of what if's. What if we do nothing and then in 5, 10 years time we have grown too big for here? What will we do then? All the villagers will think I was the coward to afraid to act.

So the giant started to think of a plan, he considered going to the villagers and talking to them about the problem, maybe they could come to some sort of agreement. However this plan had a big problem, what if this prepared them for what was to come. And so the Giant had another idea.

Late that night the Giant put his armour on and set of to the river. When he arrived he let out a might roar waking the sleeping villagers from their sleep. As they ran, panic stricken outside he ordered them to leave the village for good and never come back. Immediately the villagers ran away without returning to their homes and only with the clothes they had on their backs.

The Giant returned to his village to a hero's welcome. A parade was organised and many songs and poems were written about his kind and generous heart to risk his own safety for the villagers.

The next evening a man snuck into the Giants house and confronted him. He Shouted into the Giants ear and raised him from the depths of his slumber. The Giant demanded to know who the Man was and why he was here. The villager explained his story and that of his whole tribe. How they had been fought across the country, how they kept settling in different areas and yet they were always chased away by someone else and how they had heard about the kind and generous Giant and hope they would be safe here at last. The village told the Giant about how they were preparing a great feast for the two villages to show that they weren't a threat.

The Giant was crushed, he hadn't even considered what the other villagers had gone through or why they were there, he only thought about what his villagers thought about him and tried to maintain that reputation. The Giant started to think, what should he do next, he thought about speaking to the villagers again. If he spoke to them maybe they would understand and feel moved by their situation...but then the Giant thought about the villagers reaction, they had been so negative straight away and didn't even want to know about the other villagers situation, they were only worried about their land and looking after their future families. As he thought about it he realised they wouldn't want to hear what the other villagers had to say, in fact they would probably be angry at the Giant for speaking to them about it!

He was sure they would start to wonder if the Giant was really loyal to them or if he was loyal to something else, pretty soon they wouldn't start to criticise him behind his back and question if he really was the Kind Giant they had thought before. He didn't know what to do...