Sweet Temptation

A Sufi master's disciples were gathered at a feast. They ate and drank for several hours, and talked about the origins of stars. Night fell and everyone got ready to go home. A fine plate of sweets was left on the table.

The Sufi master made all his disciples eat it. One, however, refused. "The master is testing us, "he said. "He wants to see whether we can control our desires."

"You are mistaken," replied the Sufi master. "The base way of dominating a desire is to satisfy it. I would rather you had the sweets in your bellies - their rightful place - than in your minds, which should be filled with nobler things."

Spider's Web or Brick Wall?

During World War II, a soldier was separated from his unit on an island. The fighting had been intense, and in the smoke and the crossfire he had lost touch with his comrades.

Alone in the jungle, he could hear enemy soldiers coming in his direction. Scrambling for cover, he found his way up a high ridge to several small caves in the rock. Quickly he crawled inside one of the caves.

Although safe for the moment, he realised that once the enemy soldiers looking for him swept up the ridge, they would quickly search all the caves and would be killed.

As he waited, he prayed, "Lord, please spare my life. Whatever will happen, I love you and trust you. Amen." After praying, he lay quietly listening to the enemy begin to draw close.

He thought, "Well, I guess the Lord isn't going to help me out of this one." Then he saw a spider begin to build a web over the front of his cave. "Hah" he thought, "What I need is a brick wall and what the Lord has sent me is a spider web. God does have a sense of humour. "

As the enemy drew closer he watched from the darkness of his hide out and could see them searching one cave after another.

As they came to his, he got ready to make his last stand, but then he heard the leader of the soldiers say, "You may as well ignore looking in this cave....if he had entered here this web would be broken!" So they left and he was delivered!

To his amazement, however, after glancing in the direction of his cave, they moved on. Suddenly he realised that with the spider web over the entrance, his cave looked as if no one had entered for quite a while.

"Lord, forgive me," he prayed. "I had forgotten that in you a spider's web is stronger than a brick wall."