“Action Is Better Than Only Being Touched by the Heart”『心動不如行動的生命哲思』

By: Editorial Translated By: Evnlyn Lee（林一華）

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Long, long time ago, there was a king who was egotistic and proud.  He wished to build a grand palace, so he said to the officials, “Go to the forest and find the tallest tree.  I need it for constructing my new palace.”  In the depth of the woods, the officials found the tree.  This tree was tall and strong, and was surrounded by smaller trees.  That night, they reported to the king, “Sire, we have found your tree.  Tomorrow, we shall go to the forest to cut down the tree for constructing your palace.”

The king was very happy, and then he went to sleep. That very night, the king had a strange dream.  He dreamed that the tall tree stood in front of him.  The tree pleaded, “Dear king, please do not destroy me. If you do, every chop of the axe will give me immense pain until death occurs.”

The king replied, “You are the tallest and the strongest tree.  I need you for the construction of the palace.” The tree pleaded again but could not convince the king.  The king insisted that he needed to chop down the tree.  Finally, the tree said to the king, “If you must chop me down, please do not chop at the base like the woodsmen chopped the other trees.  You can order your men to climb up to the treetops and chop branch by branch descending my trunk until all the chopping is done.”

The king thought to himself: “That is a strange way to chop down a tree; nobody chops that way.”  Surprisingly, he asked, “Isn’t it more painful to chop the way you said than to chop from the base of the tree?”

The tree replied, “You are absolutely correct.”

“Why suffer this way?”

“Oh king, when I suggested the new way of chopping, I was protecting the living creatures in the surrounding woods.  If you uproot me by the way you chop, that would crush the surrounding smaller trees as well as kill many other living things.  Many birds and insects will lose their dwelling place; many small trees will die of the crushing.  But if you chop branch by branch from the top, it will do less harm to them.”

The king woke up.  He thought: “The tree would rather suffer more pain than to harm the other creatures.  How brave and kind is the tree!  If I chop down the tree, it would only benefit my enjoyment and pride.  How selfish am I!  I will not chop down the tree; I will show him my respect.”

The next day, the king arrived to the forest and gave the tree a bouquet of flowers to show his respect for the tree. From that day on, he became a kind and loving king, fair in all his rulings.

Dear friend, how many times are we touched in the heart by certain events, and wish to do some meaningful work.  We are even deeply touched by the love of Jesus, but we only pause in the stage of being touched by the heart.  There was no action after the moving of the heart, you remain the original you.

After the conversation between the king and the tree, the king paid a great respect to the tree, this is the touching of the heart inwardly and the out ward response by the king was displayed in his change of character.  From that time on he was a kind and fair king.

“And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”  Ephesians 4:30