JUS9-FearCloudsVisionAndJudgment

Fear can cloud your vision and judgment. A young man was walking through the forest and felt hungry. He climbed a fruit-bearing tree and began picking fruits from its terminal branches to eat. The most ripe, flavorful, and fragrant fruits were at the very ends of the highest branches. As he inched his way toward those distant fruits, a branch snapped under his weight and he fell, barely catching hold of another branch. He was now hanging perilously far above the forest floor. His nerves already frayed from his precarious situation, he shut his eyes and began yelling, "Help, help!" His grip was weakening, further compromised by his sweaty and slippery palms. Just then, an elderly man happened to be passing by. He saw the young man hanging from the branch and threw a stone at him. Hit by the stone, the young man angrily yelled, "I asked for help and you throw a stone at me? Do you have any sense?" Ignoring the young man's outburst, the elderly man threw another stone. Summoning all his strength, the youth managed to pull himself up onto the branch, quickly descended the tree, and unleashed a torrent of insults at the elderly man. Smiling calmly, the elderly man said, "Dear brother, I've done you a favor." The youth gave him a skeptical look. The elderly man continued, "When I first saw you, you were paralyzed by fear, unable to think clearly. When I threw the stone, your anger replaced your fear, activating your ability to think. Once you started thinking, you saved yourself by climbing back onto the branch. You then managed to get down from the tree safely. You didn't realize you had the power to save yourself because fear had clouded your thinking and judgment. I simply helped you break free from that paralysis." With that, he walked away, leaving the young man alone in the forest to ponder his words.