Painful Decisions
Right next to our cabin near Austin, there was an oak tree that my son, Albert Jr., who had died in his twenties, had insisted on saving when the house was built a number of years ago. For years I had tried to steer the tree away from the house so that it would damage it. For a while I was successful, but as the tree grew thicker and taller, I was no longer able to control it. It kept coming close and close to the house, and when the wind blew, the main trunk began to sway and strike at the vital structure of the house.
That oak tree had much sentimental value for me. I had made up my mind that I would steer it away from the house at whatever cost. But each time, after a few months, the tension lines came loose or snapped and broke. Nature was too determined, too forceful for me. There was nothing I could do to control the tree and pull it away from the house. Prospects for the future seemed even worse. Within a few years, at the rate it was growing, it would cause even more damage.
Last Tuesday, I made up my mind. The tree had to come down. As I cut its upper branches, then the lower ones and finally the trunk itself, it was as if I was cutting my arms, my legs, and finally my own heart. I had cut the tree that Albert Jr. wanted so much to save. When the last section of the trunk fell to the ground, I sat down and wept.
Decisions such as these are difficult. Yet decisions must be made, not on the basis of what is evil and what is good, but on the basis of what is good and what is better. I cut down the tree that our son loved. But, more important, I spared the house that he helped build and loved too. When the day was over, I felt that it had been a good one. Though hurtful, I had made the right choice. Many of our decisions are painful because we are faced with choosing between what is good and what is better. Yet we must make them.
Wrong Choices
This story is about a man named Fred who inherited $10 million, but the will provided that he had to accept it either in Chile or Brazil. He chose Brazil. Unhappily it turned out that in Chile, he would have received his inheritance in land on which uranium, gold, and silver had just been discovered. Once in Brazil, he had to choose between receiving his inheritance in coffee or nuts. He chose the nuts. Too bad! The bottom fell out of the nut market, and coffee went up to $1.30 a pound wholesale, unroasted. Poor Fred lost everything he had to his name. He went out and sold his solid gold watch for the money he needed to fly home. It seems that he had enough for a ticket to either New York or Boston. He chose Boston. When the place for New York taxied up, he noticed it was a brand-new super 747 jet with red carpets and chic people and wine-popping hostesses. The plane for Boston then arrived. It was a 1928 Ford trimotor with a sway back and it took a full day to get off the ground. It was filled with crying children and tethered goats. Over the Andes, one of the engines fell off. Our man Fred made his way up to the captain and said, “I’m a jinx on this plane. Let me out if you want to save your lives. Give me a parachute.” The pilot agreed, but added, “On this plane, anybody who bails out must wear two chutes.” So Fred jumped out of the plane, and as he fell dizzily through the air, he tried to make up his mind which ripcord to pull. Finally, he chose the one on the left. It was rusty and the wire pulled loose. So he then pulled the other handle. This chute opened, but its shroud lines snapped. In desperation, the poor fellow cried out, “St. Francis save me!” A great hand from heaven reached down and seized the poor fellow by the wrist and let him dangle in midair. Then a gentle but inquisitive voice asked, “St. Francis Xavier or St. Francis of Assisi?”
Crucial Decisions
On the top of a hill in a Midwestern state stands a courthouse so situated that raindrops falling on one side of the roof travel by way of the Great Lakes into the Atlantic, while drops landing on the opposite side find their way through the Ohio and Mississippi to the Gulf. Just a breath of wind one way or the other may determine whether a single raindrop will end up either in the Gulf or in the Atlantic. Even so, one single decision is enough to determine man’s destiny, either heaven or hell. Have you made the right decision?