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A hungry fox came upon a vineyard surrounded by a fence. There was, however, a narrow gap near one fence post. The fox tried to squeeze through, but he discovered he was too fat. The fox, not wanting the fence to get the better of him, fasted three days until he was lean and slender. Then, he had no difficulty getting through the gap. In the vineyard he ate his fill of grapes. Afterward, when trying to exit, he had grown too fat again to pass through the gap. Once more he fasted three days until he was lean and slender. Immediately upon being back outside the vineyard, the fox realized he was hungry once more. He looked back at the vineyard, and he thought to himself, “Yes, the vineyard is full of good fruit. But what advantage can I derive from it? If I enter it to consume the good, I must deprive myself of the same good.”
The means by which we seek what we call good can lead us to the loss of the good we already can enjoy. As the old aphorism has it—the grass is always greener on the other side—, we can fail to see that the great sacrifices we go through to achieve something is at the expense of the good we could already enjoy, here and now.
What in your life has God placed for you here and now, which you tend to miss enjoying here and now? Why? How can you enjoy the moment but, like the fox, discern the ramifications of it for the future? Does planning for the future necessarily take one out of the here and now? How might not envisioning the future be clothed in the excuse of needing to be in the moment?
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