You see, sometimes what we seek is on the other side of fear.

There’s a Lion Out there!

Once upon a time, there was an announcement in a small village about a beautiful garden outside the village, reputed to have an abundance of all kinds of food and drinks. However, the problem was that the pathway to the garden went through a thick forest, and the village idiot firmly believed there was a lion in the forest, waiting for unsuspecting travelers to walk by. Owing to this, poor villagers never dreamed of heading to the garden because each time the village idiot would blurt out:

“There’s a lion out there!”

Nobody ever questioned or cared about visiting the garden. Even though there were visitors from other villages coming into the village, the villagers were terrified to see people arrive through those paths but never wanted to go there by themselves. So, each day, the villagers went their day hungry, and this continued for a very long time. A visitor one time asked a villager why they were scared of walking through the thickly wooded footpath but the villager replied:

“Because there’s a lion there!”

The villagers shared the narrative about the false lion, and the story went far and wide. It was a trusted story, and everyone believed it. Every day, the mothers reminded the daughters not to fetch firewood from that forest, and the fathers stopped farming the areas surrounding the forest.

One day, a young man decided to walk through the path since visitors came to the village through the road. He succeeded in getting to the garden and felt its goodness. He returned and took his family and friends. They took a lot of food to last for years. When they returned to the village, everybody rushed to the garden and quickly to the leftovers.

Faith vs Fear

The short story demonstrates the difference between faith and fear. Popular opinion can easily influence decisions. However, one must learn when to be courageous because all that is good may be on the other side of fear.

Story imagined and created by Oke