It’s amazing how the simplest of things can end up being the most complicated. For instance, what if you and your two roommates started talking about the difference between the Prime Meridian and the International Date Line and had a 20-minute conversation about the difference and what they mean.

Wouldn’t that be crazy if that were to happen? Wow. What kind of conversation would that be if it were to have been real? Not at all the subject of this post but since it interrupted my writing, I am allowing it to interrupt your reading…Now, on to your regularly scheduled post…

I heard a parable I have never heard before this evening and it’s so good I thought the best way to get it across was simply to paste it here. Perhaps it’s a famous one that I have never heard. Here it is:

The Man, the Boy, and the Donkey

A Man and his son were once going with their Donkey to market. As they were walking along by its side a countryman passed them and said: “You fools, what is a Donkey for but to ride upon?”

So the Man put the Boy on the Donkey and they went on their way. But soon they passed a group of men, one of whom said: “See that lazy youngster, he lets his father walk while he rides.”

So the Man ordered his Boy to get off, and got on himself. But they hadn’t gone far when they passed two women, one of whom said to the other: “Shame on that lazy lout to let his poor little son trudge along.”

Well, the Man didn’t know what to do, but at last he took his Boy up before him on the Donkey. By this time they had come to the town, and the passers-by began to jeer and point at them. The Man stopped and asked what they were scoffing at. The men said: “Aren’t you ashamed of yourself for overloading that poor Donkey of yours—you and your hulking son?”

The Man and Boy got off and tried to think what to do. They thought and they thought, till at last they cut down a pole, tied the Donkey’s feet to it, and raised the pole and the Donkey to their shoulders. They went along amid the laughter of all who met them till they came to Market Bridge, when the Donkey, getting one of his feet loose, kicked out and caused the Boy to drop his end of the pole. In the struggle the Donkey fell over the bridge, and his fore-feet being tied together he was drowned.

“That will teach you,” said an old man who had followed them:

“PLEASE ALL, AND YOU WILL PLEASE NONE.”

If Jesus Christ, the son of God could come and live a perfect life, never sinning against God or others, yet be killed for it, how much more can we expect every person to love us?

You will never be able to get everyone to like you. And the more you try, the worse your life will be and the less you will succeed.