Inspirational Story:
This is a story about the importance of remembering your plan by taking it out and reviewing it, using it for guidance, and referring to it often enough for it to play a significant role in your life.
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This is a story about remembering your plan.
STORY: Captain Jack’s Map
It was a disaster. Everything was wet. The wind was blowing, and all the cargo was floating away. Many of the sailors were hurt, cold, and shivering. Captain Jack stood on the shore of ice, surveying the sight of his sinking ship with a stern expression on his face. Surprised, shocked, and disbelieving. This expedition had taken years to put together. Captain Jack stared at the massive hole in his ship and at one of his men bleeding on the massive block of ice they struck just moments ago.
A big pain of regret and sorrow filled the captain’s heart. He felt so sorry, surprised, and shocked. He desperately wanted to claw back the march of time and have the past few days to do over again. He felt so sorry. “Is there any way to make this not have happened?” he wondered.
Just this morning he felt so strong and invincible as he ate breakfast with the crew on the deck of the ship. He remembered all the painstaking effort he expended to get a copy of the map. The map showed a safe passageway through what many of his fellow captains referred to as the Icy Maze of Death. He had seen the broken ships of men who attempted the Icy Maze of Death before and died in the attempt. But Captain Jack had the map. He believed his voyage would be different. His heart was set on the riches he would bring from the other side of the deathly waters. He felt he had worked it all out.
What pained Captain Jack was not the risk he took in embarking on such a perilous journey. It was not the weeks of bitter cold he and his men would have to endure. It was not the dangerous maneuvers they would have to perform. What nearly brought this strong, stoic man to tears was that he knew he had the map that would see his men and his ship safely through the passage, but he did not use the map. Having the map was not enough, you see. He didn’t use it.
“How utterly foolish I have been?” Captain Jack muttered to himself as he held his face shamefully in his hands. “I had the map. It is on a shelf in my cabin,” he moaned. He had put the map there. Then he forgot about it and just sailed on in the direction he felt he should go. He didn’t even use the map. Didn’t even look at it. He kind of felt he knew in his head where he should go. Was it pride? Was it foolishness? All that effort wasted, ruined. Without knowing it, he had sailed his ship deep into the most treacherous part of the Icy Maze of Death. The waters looked safe that morning. But now, well now, just look at the horrid scene of twisted timber, and the broken bow of his sinking ship. His men, shocked, dismayed, and dumbstruck, stood bewildered in the unrelenting wind not knowing what to do.
“How could I have done this?” Captain Jack cried. “I should have followed the plan I made before embarking on this journey. How did I let this happen?” He sighed a deep sigh, and the stern look on his face melted into humility and defeat as his hopes of a safe return met with the reality of the nightmare in front of him.
Somewhere in his soul that day, he had learned a very expensive lesson. And without really even consciously thinking of it, he made a deep vow to always follow the map. “That is,” he thought, “if I survive this tragedy.”
He pulled his jacket tight around him, walked over and sat on the ice with his men, and began to formulate a plan to somehow get them out of danger and possibly save their lives.
End of Story
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