Matt Wahl, The Answer Is Faith from mattwahl on Vimeo.

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One of my favorite stories is the story of a farmer whose horse runs away. When his neighbors find out they say, “That’s awful.” The farmer just says, “We’ll see.” The next day his horse returns with six wild horses. When the neighbors hear the news, they say, “That’s wonderful, think of all the work you can get done. What good fortune!” But the farmer just says, “We’ll see.” A day or two later, the farmer’s son is trying to tame one of the wild horses. He is thrown off and breaks his leg. The neighbors cry, “That’s horrible!” Again the farmer simply says, “we’ll see.” The very next day, the army comes through the village drafting all the young men to go and fight in a war. When they see the farmer’s son’s leg, they pass him by. All the neighbors celebrate and say, “That is fantastic news.” But the farmer just says, “we’ll see.”

The point is that it can often be difficult to judge an event on its own. There are things that appear at first to be bad and then turn out to be a blessing. There are things that might appear to be great and turn out to be not so wonderful.

When we moved to Knoxville, TN we were living just south of town, right by the airport. We lived in a two bedroom townhouse and had a ton of stuff in storage. We were supposed to be there for 4 years so we started looking for a house. We found one we liked but it was bit out of our price range and we had trouble getting the loan for the mortgage. We thought this was awful. We felt like this house came on the market just for us and it was fate that we happened by it when we did. So how could the loan not come through? What a curse! We certainly judged this as bad! But we went a different route and we were able to get the loan for the mortgage at a great rate. We were thrilled. It all seemed to work out the way it should and we judged this as good, a blessing!

Just 9 months later, my wife took a new job in Washington DC and 3 weeks from the day we closed on that house, there was a For Sale sign in the front yard and we were now trying to get rid of that house we so desperately wanted. Suddenly we were looking back and saying, “We wished we never would have bought this house!” In hindsight, getting the loan for the mortgage now seemed like a curse and we were judging it as bad. Those thoughts only got worse as that house went unsold month after month. It took 15 months and three different realtors to sell that house and we sure spent a lot of time cursing it, the mortgage and the whole situation.

Looking back on the situation, it was eye-opening to see how what seemed like a curse (not getting the mortgage) could have ended up a blessing and how what seemed like a blessing (eventually getting the mortgage and buying the house) seemed later like a curse. Now I don’t know how having a house for sale and paying the mortgage on an empty house for 15 months could be a blessing. It sure seemed like a curse.

What I learned is that maybe I should be more like the farmer in the story above and not be so quick to judge each event. Perhaps life would be a bit smoother if I had some faith that all of these little individual moments were all part of a grand plan. I also learned that cursing things don’t make them go away and it sure doesn’t make a situation feel any better. Nor does it bring about a solution any faster.

There are going to be things in my life that feel bad, that feel like a curse but I need to keep in mind what I want. I want to enjoy my life as much as possible as focusing on how bad something is doesn’t help me reach my goal. When Tony Robbins talks about the success principles, he says that a successful person sees things as they are and not worse than they are. So often, when I catch myself cursing a situation, I make it seem so much worse than it is. I need to remember that everything in my life is what it is and have faith that it is part of the plan.

Thanks for being here!
Matt

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