FOOD FOR THE SOUL

FOOD FOR THE SOUL

Ernest Campbell, a former faculty member of the Union Theological Seminary in New York, told the story of a woman who bought a parrot at a local store because she was lonely. She took the bird home, but after a couple of days, she returned to the store to complain. “That parrot hasn’t said a word yet!”

“Does it have a mirror?” the pet store owner asked. “Parrots like to be able to look at themselves in the mirror.” So the lady bought a mirror and returned home.

The next day, she was back at the store because the bird still hadn’t made a peep.

“What about a ladder?” the store owner asked. “Parrots enjoy walking up and down  a ladder.” So she bought a ladder and returned home.

She was back at the store the next day. Still the parrot hadn’t said a thing.

“Does the parrot have a swing?” the owner asked. “Birds enjoy relaxing on a swing.” She bought a swing and went home.

The next day she returned to the store to tell the pet store owner that the bird had died.

“I’m terribly sorry to hear that,” said the store owner.

“Did the bird ever say anything before it died?”

“Yes,” answered the lady. “It said, ‘Don’t they sell any food down there’”?

The lesson of the story, Campbell said was that we buy mirrors by which to primp, ladders by which we try to climb higher, and swings upon which we seek pleasure, but we neglect food for our souls.

-John C. Maxwell, The Difference Maker.