Fear of Walking the Road Less Traveled
A salesman was driving down an old country road gazing off into the hills when he accidentally drove off the road and into the ditch. Fortunately he wasn’t injured, but his car was now stuck. Realizing that he would not be able to free his car himself, he walked to a nearby farm to ask for help.
When he arrived at the farm he was greeted by an old farmer. “Good day sir, may I help you?” the farmer said. “Yes please,” began the salesman. “I was driving down the road and unfortunately I drove into the ditch and now I’m stuck.” “No problem old Fred will pull you out of there,” said the farmer, pointing to an old mule standing over by the barn. The salesman took one look at the frail old mule and replied “Are you sure?” “Oh ya, old Fred can do the job.” With nothing to lose the salesman replied, “OK let’s give it a shot.”
The two men and the mule walked back to the salesman’s car. Once they arrived the farmer hitched up old Fred to the car. Then with a snap of the reins, he shouted, “Pull, Ted! Pull, Pat! Pull, Sue! Pull, Fred!”
Upon that command old Fred pulled the salesman’s car out of the ditch.
The salesman was amazed. He thanked the farmer, patted the mule, and then asked, “Why did you call out all of those other names before you called out Fred?”
The farmer grinned and said, “Well ya see old Fred is nearly blind and so long as he believes he’s a part of a team, he isn’t going to set any limits on himself.”
To often in life we set limits on ourselves based upon what we’ve heard or been taught to accept. In many cases we hold on to our limits by clinging on to our human capabilities, rather than trusting in our infinite spiritual potential. Why we make these choices are individual, but far to often we are unwilling to face the responsibility of accepting our greatness, preferring to fall back into the comfort zone known as fate, for fear of walking the road less traveled.
