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Special Story
I want to tell you a story
about a touchstone. Now if you don't know what a
touchstone is, it is a stone that if you touch it to any
kind of metal it turns it to gold.
This story starts in the city of Alexandria in ancient
Egypt.
There was a great fire in the great library of
Alexandria. This library was the largest library in the
world at that time. This fire destroyed the building and
a lot of the books as well.
There was a very poor gentleman who used to hang around
the steps of the library because he was not allowed to
enter due to his social status. He started to rummage
through the remains of the fire. Upon doing so this
gentleman discovered a few books that could still be
read.
As he was going through one of the books a piece of
parchment paper fell out of the book. As he started to
read the parchment he discovered that it talked about a
touchstone and had a map of where the touchstone could be
found on the shores of the Black Sea. The parchment said
that you could recognize a touchstone if
it was hot when you placed it in the palm of your hand.
So he decided to take the belongings that he had, which
was his donkey and tent and journey to the shores of the
Black Sea.
As he reached the shores of the Black Sea he began to
think to himself, "If this takes me 20 or 30 years it
would be worth it." As he started to pick up the stones
to find the hot one, he thought, "How will I know which
stones I have already picked up?" So he decided that as
he picked up the stones he would throw all the
cold ones back into the sea. So he picked up his first
stone. It was a cold one so he tossed it into the sea. He
did this all day long, picking up stones and tossing them
into the sea.
The second day came, same thing... pick up stones, cold,
throw it into the sea, cold, throw it into the sea, cold,
throw it into the sea. This turned into weeks. Weeks
turned into months and the months turned into in years.
But he had a goal and he knew what he wanted to get, so
he kept working.
Year after year, 5 years, 6 years, he picks up the
stones, cold, he throw them into the sea, cold, he throws
them into the sea. 10 years, 15 years, 16 years day after
day he is working his way around the shore of the sea
picking up stones, cold, throws them back into the sea.
Now he is into twenty years. Finally into 21 years and a
few months, he gets up one morning and he goes out and
starts picking up the stones just like he's done every
day for the past 21 years, here's
another cold one, throws it back into the sea, here's
another cold one, throw's it back into the sea. Picks one
up, here's a HOT one ...and he throw's it back into
the sea!
Now, why did he do that? It was a habit. He was so used
to failure and disappointment after 21 years, that when
he had finally found what he had been looking for he
threw it away.
Maybe you have had so many disappointments and so many
failures, so many things that have
not worked out that when you see the real McCoy, you
throw it into the sea.
And hopefully after today you'll have some ideas inside
yourself, that you won't just throw it into the sea.
Because we have something so incredible here.
Would it be worth 20 or 30 years to you if you could find
a stone like that? To dedicate your life to finding that
stone?
Walt Disney once said, "All our dreams can come true --
if we have the courage to pursue them."
How about you?
Do you have the courage to pursue your dream?
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