Faith: The Story of a Chinese Farmer by Ethan McMannis

Once upon a time, there was a Chinese farmer. The Chinese farmer had a horse and a son. He lived near a village and everyone knew him and he knew them. One morning, the farmer got up at dawn and headed to his stable. He picked up the horse’s gear and opened the stable door where the horse was. When the gate opened, his horse left the stable and continued its run. The horse galloped through the village, waking up the entire town and leaving a lasting impression.

Everyone in the village came to the farmer and said to him: “Farmer, your only horse! It has run away! What are you and your son going to do now?” The farmer replied: “Well, it seems My son and I have to plough the land with our hands.” The villagers declared: “How terrible for you and your son! It’s too bad for you that you have to work so hard!” The farmer said: “We’ll see..”

A few days passed and the son trained a new mare to ride. He finally felt comfortable enough to ride it as he swung his legs over everything that seemed normal, until a rat ran past the horse, startling the mare, and began making a mad dash to get the boy off Pulled down on her back so she could escape. He fell and broke his leg.

The farmer came back from work on the farm and took his son to the village healer. As the farmer waited for his son to recover, the villagers saw this and told him. “Too bad your only son is injured. When harvest time comes, how are you going to get all the work done on the farm? What are you going to do? You’re so unlucky.”

Again the farmers told them: “We’ll see.”

A month passed and the son was still physically disabled when the Chinese army came to their village and began conscripting all able-bodied boys and men who had no other jobs. The boy with legs was ignored by the general because he was unfit for military service. The villagers noticed this and ran to the farmer screaming! “Your only son, your only son didn’t have to serve and die in a meaningless war. You’re so lucky, you’re so lucky!” The farmer replied naturally: “We’ll see.”

The moral of the story is that no matter what hardship you go through, no matter how backbreaking, something good may come of it. But that good can also bring something unfortunate with it… only to give you something good in return… it’s an endless cycle of good and of not-so-good. But in my opinion, it is all Good, and it is all love.

These difficult times are just a lesson of not being so attached to the good, and the good is just a lesson of not being so attached to the bad. Being grateful for what we have, but not identifying who we are with what we have, or have not. As Ecclesiastes writes,

“Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” (KJV) 
Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, Vanity of vanities! All is vanity. (ESV)

But with the coming of Jesus, with the new covenant, the new promise, life is promised, eternal at that. John 3:16; John 5:24; John 6:47; 1 John 5:11-13. It is a promise. Choosing to believe is a CHOICE. I believe God wants us to believe in Him but He can not force man to do so. It is a free will. Also in Mark 8:34, Romans 10: 9-10. In addition, in Deuteronomy 30:19, Now choose life, so that you and your children may live… Ezekiel 18:32 For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!

Life is vain without a belief that there is more to everything we have experienced, are experiencing or will ever experience. What good is life if we only focus on birth, living and death? Should we simply accept toiling and suffering just as a way of life or believe there is more choosing to believe that there must be a reason and find purpose?

Because choosing not to believe will only work against us, and that is definitely not the Lord’s purpose for man. In Ecclesiastes 3:11, He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart, yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

What is the use of not believing in the eternity of man just because the body is not? What’s the use of denying that the river is flowing, just because its water isn’t clear? What is the use of denying the river (path, valley, riverbed) just because it’s seasonal? It is a river. It is life. And He is God, living through man. Denying Him is denying your source, maker and being.

Faith and Science

And science itself from many studies has proven what happens when a person has faith that something is happening, whether it is healing or wellness and they become so. When didn’t man believe and something happened. Only when man believed, change happen.

But then To some, faith is a good thing, a noble virtue on par with hope, love, and charity, and something that we all presumably strive to realize in our lives. To others, it is no less than an affront to reason, and rationality, after all, is a presumed (Jeff Levin PhD, MPH~ How Faith Heals: A Theoretical Model) “The Faith that Heals.”1

In his article, Osler extolled the many virtues of faith, especially in relation to a putative salutary role in health, healing, and medicine. To wit: “Nothing in life is more wonderful than faith,” “[F]aith is the cement which binds man to man in every relation in life,” “Faith is indeed one of the miracles of human nature which science is as ready to accept as it is to study its marvellous effects,” and, “[F]aith has always played a strong role as a popular measure of cure.” Sir William Osler

In simple words, sons of men, whether we choose to believe in God or not, it is a choice. And choosing what we can live with is what man does for ages. Just because one is born blind or deaf, physically disabled or with eternal illness, choosing not to believe doesn’t affirm his absence. Because just like many other people, we all have challenges but still hold to faith, and there are also people like those who do not believe, same issues, gone through similar challenges BUT they chose to believe and we have all witnessed how mighty God is. Jesus in John 9:3 “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him.”

Choose Faith, Choose Him

God has a plan for you. It is our destiny to become diamonds but to become diamonds we have to decay, and be covered with crap until we feel so much pressure that we turn to coal. we become depressed and feel disassociated with the world. We then go through more and more pressure, which makes us angry and frustrated, it heats us till we can take it no more. A fork in the road, choose God or continue where we already are.

If you choose God, then you will become the diamond and glisten in the glory of God. If not, you will continue as coal forever trapped in the darkness and under the intense pressure and heat that sears you. But as the Diamond, you have the chance to return to the surface and bring Awe to the world with all your glistening glory.

The seeds of the Word will always be scattered. But it is the soil, that will determine the growth of the seed and the depth the roots will grow to.

My humble opinion, God in his simplest yet most complex form, of all the religions and beliefs. He is Love. when you can tear down the dogma and reach his sincerest form. God is pure Love, for he is the most beautiful diamond of all, and the master craftsman who forms us all from those rough diamonds we become, and into those perfectly cut diamonds that catch our eyes at the stores. I hope this helps. Love you, my brother or sister. Fret not, and love all. God bless.

(Edited post of Ethan McMannis)