A Fable about Vocation

I wrote this little story (everything not in italics) while I was visiting Julian House in the first week of Easter, and finally got around to posting it with a few revisions early on the morning of April 9th, Dietrich Bonhoeffer's day. I back dated the post to the night it was written.

Once long ago, there was a town on the plains between the mountains and the sea. Everyone around the whole world knew that a treasure of immeasurable value was said to be within a days journey of the town, or two days at the most. This rumor brought many adventurers to the town and the people prospered, although they never went seeking the treasure themselves. They didn't seek mostly because all the treasure they'd ever seen was a few uncut gemstones and some fool's gold. Besides they got plenty of treasure from the travellers passing through, although it certainly had a measurable value.

One day a child of the town announced that she would go and find the treasure and mark the path for others to follow. No one in the town took this seriously, but they happily sold her whatever supplies she asked for and joked about waiting to see her carrying back limitless treasure. Her only response was to laugh and ask how they thought she could carry so much treasure.

She would journey out on one day and return a couple days later. When she returned the people would always ask her if she'd found the treasure, laughing, and tell her to give it up when she said that she hadn't found it yet. After all, there were always plenty of foreigners to provide all the wealth a person could want. This continued for a long time until finally when she returned she said that she had found the treasure and now she was working to mark the path. Still, few believed her even though she had returned with a little treasure. She ignored the naysayers, however, and set about marking the path and making it as easy to follow as possible. She even took the few who wanted to see the treasure with her when she left town. and they always returned with some gold and jewels and tales of an incredible treasure. They also told how the path became quite difficult at times, but their guide was never daunted.

Eventually she grew old and couldn't make the journey any more, but she had become wealthy from all the times she had gone to the treasure, so that was fine for her. Her last instructions to those who would seek the treasure was to follow the sign and never give up, no matter how hard the path became.

Where is this village you ask? What was the sign? Those secrets have been lost in the mists of time and the changing of the world. The village could be anywhere, even your own city or town. About the sign there is even greater disagreement, but I say it is the cross. The only way to find out is to follow whatever sign you think will be a faithful guide and never lose hope, even though the way is promised to become very hard indeed.

-from the mouth of an old story teller I met in my travels.