There was once a fly who sat upon a cow patty having his supper. The fly had been eating for quite a while and thought to himself, ‘I’m stuffed. I think I’ll fly over and have a nice seat on a horse.’ As the fly attempted his takeoff, he was unable to get off the ground. He was too full from his meal.
‘What am I going to do?’ thought the fly. ‘I know, there’s a pitchfork leaning against the barn. I’ll climb up the handle of that pitchfork and jump – and that will give me some momentum to fly.’
So the fly proceeded to climb up the handle of the pitchfork. He came to the very top. He got ready. He jumped…And SPLAT! The fly crashed to his death.
What is the moral of this story?
If you’re full of crap, don’t fly off the handle.
- Proverbs 10:19- ‘When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent.’
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I really like the parable and your comment about not sharing much of what you think. That is truly wise.
Elisa and I still laugh about our days in Osceola when we were attacked by people who were solidly in the “against Satan Clause” camp. I didn’t remember you being in that crowd. But by the time you showed up on the scene, we were keeping our views on Santa Claus to ourselves. 🙂
BTW, we tell our boys that he is from the land of make believe, and that we all get to play Santa Claus at Christmas time. No lies, just some fun. But we do stress the land of make believe aspect so that they know that Jesus is not from the land of make believe. (That is the real danger of SC. If SC is false, what about Jesus?)
I wasn’t in that camp. I’m still not really. I think I implied it in the post, but they caught me at a moment of weakness. I had just finished preaching and I was feeling a bit frisky, etc. I regretted saying anything to be honest. But by the time I had told the story the subject was pretty well changed.
And, Timothy, I forgot to add, my mom was the sort who told me (literally), ‘The day you stop believing in Santa Claus is the day you stop getting presents!’ I remember being deeply offended by this as a child.
Now that was just mean! :0