Choir Notes

The Fruits of Selflessness
From Music and the Spoken Word
Delivered By: Lloyd D. Newell • Program 4257

Every hour of every day affords us opportunities to think of others more than ourselves. In countless large and small ways, we decide whether to put our own needs and desires first or to place someone else’s needs and desires above our own. When we choose to be unselfish, we find true happiness. But sometimes choosing selflessness may be more difficult than it seems.

A beloved folk tale from the Philippines illustrates this principle well. A monkey and a turtle were sitting by the side of a river when they saw a banana stalk floating by. The monkey suggested that they plant the banana stalk, but since he could not reach the stalk and could not swim, he asked the turtle to retrieve it.

When the turtle returned with the banana stalk, the monkey suggested that they divide it in half. In a moment of selfish stupidity, the monkey took the top half with the bananas on it for himself, and he gave the lower portion with the roots to the turtle.

Each went home and planted his portion of the stalk. In a short period of time, the monkey had eaten the bananas, and his stalk without roots had withered and died. However, the turtle’s portion of the stalk took root and produced bananas for many years to come.

How often have we exchanged the long-term blessings of a selfless life for the short-term pleasures of a selfish one? Whenever we give in to self-centered desires, we deprive ourselves of more enduring feelings of joy. Worse, we withhold from others help and comfort that they may urgently need. One of the great lessons of life is learning, as Paul wrote in his epistle to the Corinthians, to seek not our own.1 Then we begin to taste the fruits of true love, sincere devotion, and everlasting happiness.

1 See 1 Corinthians 13:5.