 Je,
Uko Club 99? 
[Nov 11,
2005]
Long ago, there lived a
King. This King should have been contented with his life, given all
the riches and luxuries he had. However, this was not the case! The
King always found himself wondering why he just never seemed content
with his life. Sure, he had the attention of everyone wherever he
went, attended fancy dinners and parties, but somehow, he still felt
something was lacking and he couldn't put his finger on it.
One day, the King had woken up earlier than usual to
stroll around his palace. He entered his huge living room and came to
a stop when he heard someone happily singing away...following this
singing... he saw that one of the servants was singing and had a very
contented look on his face. This fascinated the King and he summoned
this man to his chambers. The man, his servant, entered the King's
chambers as ordered. The King asked why he was so happy? To this the
man replied: "Your Majesty, I am nothing but a servant, but I make
enough of a living to keep my wife and children happy. We don't
need too much, a roof over our heads and warm food to fill our tummy.
My wife and children are my inspiration, they are content with
whatever little I bring home. I am happy because my family is happy."
Hearing this, the King dismissed the servant and summoned his Personal
Assistant to his chambers.
The
King related his personal anguish about his feelings and then related
the story of the servant to his Personal
Assistant, hoping that somehow, he will be able to come up with some
reasoning that here was a King who could have anything he wished for
at a snap of his fingers and yet was not contented, whereas, his
servant, having so little was extremely contented. The Personal
Assistant listened attentively and came to a conclusion. He said,
"Your Majesty, I believe that the servant has not been made part of
The 99 Club. "The 99 Club?" And what exactly is that?" the King
inquired. To which the Assistant replied, "Your Majesty, to truly know
what The 99 Club is, you will have to do the following ... place 99
Gold coins in a bag and leave it at this servant's doorstep, you will
then understand what The 99 Club is."
That very same
evening, the King arranged for 99 Gold coins to be placed in a bag at
the servant's doorstep. Although he was slightly hesitant and he
thought he should have put 100 Gold coins into the bag, but since his
assistant had advised him
to put 99 that is what he did. The servant was just stepping out of
his house when he saw a bag at his doorstep. Wondering about its
contents, he took it into his house and opened the bag.
When he opened the bag, he let out a great big shout of joy... Gold
Coins... so many of them. He could hardly believe it. He called his
wife to show her the coins. He then took the bag to a table and
emptied it out and began to count the coins. Doing so, he realized
that there were 99 coins and he thought it was an odd number so he
counted again, and again and
again only to come to the same conclusion... 99 Gold Coins. He began
to wonder, what could have happened to that last 1 coin? For no one
would leave 99 coins. He began to search his entire house, looked
around his backyard for hours, not wanting to lose out on that one
coin.
Finally,
exhausted, he decided that he was going to have to work harder than
ever to make up for that 1 Gold coin to make his entire collection an
even 100 Gold Coins. He got up the next morning, in an extremely
horrible mood, shouting at the children and his wife for his delay,
not realizing that he had spent most of the night conjuring ways of
working hard so that he had enough money to buy himself that gold
coin. He went to work as usual - only not in his usual best mood,
singing happily - as he grumpily did his daily errands. Seeing the
man's attitude change so drastically, the King was puzzled. He
promptly summoned his assistant to his chambers. The King related his
thoughts about the servant and once again, his assistant listened. The
King could not believe that the servant who until yesterday had been
singing away and was happy and content with his life had taken a
sudden change of attitude, even though he should have been happier
after receiving the gold coins. To this the assistant replied "Ah! But
your Majesty, the servant has now officially joined The 99 Club." He
explained: "The 99 Club is just a name given to those people who have
everything but yet are never contented, therefore they are always
working hard and striving for that extra 1 to round it out to 100!
We have so much to be thankful for and we can live with very little in
our lives, but the minute we are given something bigger and better, we
want even more! We are not the same happy contented person we used to
be, we want
more and more and by wanting more and more we don't realize the price
we pay for it. We lose our sleep, our happiness; we hurt the people
around us just as a price to pay for our growing needs and desires.
That is what joining The 99 Club is all about." Hearing this the King
decided that from that day onwards, he was going to start appreciating
all the little things in life. Striving for more is always good, but
let's not strive so hard and for so much that we lose all those near
and dear to our hearts, we shouldn't compromise our happiness for
moments of luxuries! "For the love of money is the root of all
evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith
and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." -1 Timothy 6:10
"In prayer; expect setbacks, but refuse retreat." (Richard Eastman)
...... For
the Christian Prayer is not an option but an opportunity.
Don't tell the Lord how big the problem is, tell the
problem how Great the Lord is!
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