Topic : Enemies

• Pay attention to your enemies, for they are the first to discover your mistakes. - Antisthenes

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Rabbi David A. Nelson likes to tell the story of two brothers who went to their rabbi to settle a longstanding feud. The rabbi got the two to reconcile their differences and shake hands. As they were about to leave, he asked each one to make a wish for the other in honor of the Jewish New Year.

The first brother turned to the other and said, “I wish you what you wish me.”

At that, the second brother threw up his hands and said, “See, Rabbi, he’s starting up again!”

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A reporter was interviewing an old man on his 100th birthday. “What are you most proud of?” he asked.

“Well, “ said the man, “I don’t have an enemy in the world.”

“What a beautiful thought! How inspirational!” said the reporter.

“Yep,” added the centenarian, “outlived every last one of them.”

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In CONTEXT, Mary Marty retells a parable from the EYE OF THE NEEDLE newsletter:

“A holy man was engaged in his morning meditation under a tree whose roots stretched out over the riverbank. During his meditation he noticed that the river was rising, and a scorpion caught in the roots was about to drown. He crawled out on the roots and reached down to free the scorpion, but every time he did so, the scorpion struck back at him.

“An observer came along and said to the holy man, ‘Don’t you know that’s a scorpion, and it’s in the nature of a scorpion to want to sting?’

“To which the holy man replied, ‘That may well be, but it is my nature to save, and must I change my nature because the scorpion does not change its nature?”

Joseph B. Modica

Eye of the Needle Newsletter

Politics without principle,
pleasure without conscience,
wealth without work,
knowledge without character,
business without morality,
science without humanity,
worship without sacrifice.

Mohandas K. Gandhi,

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Some Christians know so little of victory because they have failed to recognize a conflict. Friends may come and go, but enemies accumulate. In THE GRACE OF GIVING, Stephen Olford tells of a Baptist pastor during the American Revolution, Peter Miller, who lived in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, and enjoyed the friendship of George Washington. In Ephrata also lived Michael Wittman, an evil-minded sort who did all he could to oppose and humiliate the pastor.

One day Michael Wittman was arrested for treason and sentenced to die. Peter Miller traveled seventy miles on foot to Philadelphia to plead for the life of the traitor.

“No, Peter,” General Washington said. “I cannot grant you the life of your friend.”

“My friend!” exclaimed the old preacher. “He’s the bitterest enemy I have.”

“What?” cried Washington. “You’ve walked seventy miles to save the life of an enemy? That puts the matter in different light. I’ll grant your pardon.” And he did.

Peter Miller took Michael Wittman back home to Ephrata—no longer an enemy but a friend.

Lynn Jost

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