We recently saw (and enjoyed) the movie I ♥ Huckabees. It reminded me of the following old Hasidic fable, which a good friend introduced to us:
Once, the great Hassidic leader, Zusya, came to his followers. His eyes were red with tears, and his face was pale with fear.
“Zusya, what’s the matter? You look frightened!”
“The other day, I had a vision. In it, I learned the question that the angels will one day ask me about my life.”
The followers were puzzled. “Zusya, you are pious. You are scholarly and humble. You have helped so many of us. What question about your life could be so terrifying that you would be frightened to answer it?”
Zusya turned his gaze to heaven. “I have learned that the angels will not ask me, ‘Why weren’t you a Moses, leading your people out of slavery?'”
His followers persisted. “So, what will they ask you?”
“And I have learned,” Zusya sighed, “that the angels will not ask me, ‘Why weren’t you a Joshua, leading your people into the promised land?'”
One of his followers approached Zusya and placed his hands on Zusya’s shoulders. Looking him in the eyes, the follower demanded, “But what will they ask you?”
“They will say to me, ‘Zusya, there was only one thing that no power of heaven or earth could have prevented you from becoming.’ They will say, ‘Zusya, why weren’t you Zusya?'”
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WOW!! I love this story...I've never heard it before. I'm doing a program over the summer with some of the kids at church about "how do you define yourself," and I was doing some research; this will be great! This story is amazing:)
Had the same question for about 18 months and I knew I had the answer when I found this
thats how I knew I was myself...but the answer itself was surprising
glad to help.
i always knew there was a reason we were fated to meet; but i didn't know just what that reason was--until tonight.
p.s., let me know what you think of the movie!
I need to thank you. I was on Netflix and I couldn't remember the name of this movie that I wanted to add to my queue, and then I came to LEFTBRANED and there you were to remind me.
In case you don't feel like you do enough good in the world, you can add this to the list.