Daily Meditation: Friday, November 15, 2024

Trials and difficulties - the story of a grain of wheat

11/15/2024

Difficulties and trials are necessary in order for us to advance, grow and become stronger. People who choose an easy existence for fear of suffering are wasting their life force, and they will be obliged to pass through other ordeals. The grain of wheat that hides away in the granary, believing itself to be safe, will be eaten by mice or will grow mouldy. But the grain of wheat that reasons, ‘I do not want to stay here doing nothing, I want to become a fine ear of corn, so please sow me in the ground’, will be put into the earth. Of course, when it finds itself in the cold and dark it will cry, ‘I did not ask for this treatment!’ But it will sprout. Later, at harvest time, it will be cut down and will again complain loudly. And when it is threshed and separated from the straw, it will bitterly bewail the cruelty of its fate. And that is not the end of it: one day it will be carted off to the mill to be ground, then kneaded with water, and after that put into the oven. What a life! But when it is placed on the table, well baked and golden brown, to be feasted upon by beautiful, good people, this grain of wheat will finally understand why it had to go through all these trials, and it will be happy. So, stay quietly in your granary if you so wish, but your life will be a useless one.*