Parable of the River
Once upon a time there
was a small village on the edge of a river.
The people there were happy and life in the village was
good. One day a villager noticed a person floating down the river and quickly dove in to save
him. The next day the villager noticed
two people being swept down river, so he quickly plunged into the
water and pulled both struggling victims to safety.
The following day there
were three people caught in the current.
Not able to save them alone, the courageous bystander
sought the help of other villagers. The
next day even more people needed saving from the turbulent river, and even
more villagers were called to join the rescue efforts. Soon the river was full of
drowning people.
The villagers organized
themselves quickly, setting up watchtowers and training rescue teams who could resist the swift
waters. Yet each day the number of
helpless victims struggling against the river increased. The villagers worked efficiently and
together they saved many lives. While
they felt they were doing a good job, they could not save all the
victims. Life in the village continued.
Finally someone raised a
question, asking "where are all these people coming from? We should go upstream to find out
what’s causing these people to fall into the current in the first place!” The seeming logic of the
community elders countered: "And
if we go upstream who will perform the rescue operations? We
need every villager here!"
"But don't you
see," cried the one lone voice," if we find out how they’re falling
into the river we can stop the problem and no one will drown! By going upstream we can remove the
cause!" "It is too risky," demanded
the village elders. And while the
number of saved people increased, the number of drowning victims
increased even more.
Clearly, we need to work
together to rescue people who are caught in the river’s current. But we must also strive, as a
community, to look upstream and focus on the reasons why people are falling
into the river at all.
~Author Unknown