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A Guest Post: A Parable by Thomas Naegele

This is a guest post from Tom Naegele. You can check out his blog by clicking his name. I was very much moved by this post of his below the picture. We will not be happy until God is the center of our lives. Until then, those seemingly pointless tasks of sweeping the floor and cleaning the dishes will seem very insignificant, but if we make God the center at all times and do those tasks for love of Him, well, then, how great will they become then?
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There once lived a tiny seed who wished to become a great and beautiful tree. He spent many years trying everything in his power to germinate, sprout, and grow. He worked tirelessly at it every single day of his life, but it was seemingly all to no avail.
Finally, after many years of persevering in hard work, the seed was at last able to bury himself in a bit of soil and begin the germination process. But alas, our poor seed could make it no further. The soil he had found was in a cold and dark environment, and he received none of the essential sunlight and water. Consequently, this poor, miserable seed simply withered away back into the nothingness from which he came. He never achieved his goal of becoming a great and beautiful tree.
Such is the sad story of many a life today.
We set lofty goals for our lives, we work diligently and tirelessly towards those goals, and yet we often fail miserably. Why? It is because we so often attempt to do everything ourselves. We obsess over the idea of becoming something, so we madly seek out soil–any soil–in which we can begin the germination process. We sacrifice everything to have a little success, but we ignore the essential elements of growth.
Sunlight and water are necessary for any life to grow beyond the germination process. Sunlight is the presence of God in our souls, and water is His graces pouring down from Heaven. If we ever wish for any real success in our lives, we must have these two vital elements.
It is possible to find a little, temporary success without the element of God in our lives, but it will only be a fleeting moment. Very soon we will wilt, and we will die. We will go back to the nothingness from which we came. We will have wasted our lives without ever accomplishing anything of value.
But if we would only welcome the ever-burning sun of God into our lives, and then open our souls to receiving His infinite graces, what success we will encounter! What great and beautiful examples of life we shall become. Do this today, dear readers. We must stop trying to become something on our own. We must turn to Him, the source of all life, and ask for His help.

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