Aesop’s Fables Month: The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse 🏙️🐁🛖🐀
by Crystal A Murray (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) via Gemini
What Paul says here really matters because attitude can make or break the joy we experience in this life.
“I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.”
— Philippians 4:12-13 (B.S.B.)
If you’ve read parts of my testimony, you know I’ve experienced the low parts, but since many of them are before giving my life to Christ, let me fast forward to some moments after salvation.
Right after I got saved, I lived in a tiny airstream trailer without a lot of regular benefits you get with even a small apartment—like a shower stall. I paid $25 per week, which would be about $85 per week now, and that included utilities. My take home from working at a truck stop was about $35 per week, so that gave me $10 per week for food. I guess that would be about $35 now. So I would go through the grocery store twice: once to put everything I thought I wanted into my cart, and next to take out anything that went over my budget. And while that sounds excruciatingly difficult, it was simple, and I was happy.
As life got a little financially easier, I enjoyed the privilege of going out to eat now and then, but both the restaurant and the meal were chosen based on available cash. One restaurant we frequented dubbed our family “the biscuit and gravy bunch” because that’s what we could usually afford.
Later, I got a job where my paychecks allowed me to order from the menu without focusing on the price. Those paychecks didn’t make me rich, but in comparison to the days of biscuits and gravy, it felt like I was rich.
But here’s the one thing that was so different when I got those checks: I was content as long as my focus was on The Lord. I was no more content with more money and no less content with less money. There are moments when having what I need, or even what I desire, is a wonderful experience on this earth, and it’s tempting to even call it a blessing, but the most real “blessings” we can have in this life are the moments filled with real gifts like family, friends, joy, love—and especially the love of Christ. There is nothing that can compare to being contented with our salvation.
The Classic Fable Retold: The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse (Perry 352)
A town mouse once visited his relative who lived in a humble hole in the fields. The country mouse served a modest meal of roots, grains, and acorns, nibbling sparingly while offering the best he had.
The town mouse turned up his nose and said, “My poor friend, you live like an ant! Come with me to the city, and you will see what real living is. A wealth of cheese, honey, fruit, and fine foods awaits us.”
Intrigued, the country mouse accompanied him to a grand townhouse. But just as they began to feast upon a luxurious banquet left on the table, the door flew open and heavy footsteps approached, accompanied by a prowling cat. Terrified, the mice scrambled for their lives, dodging shadows and claws.
When the coast finally cleared, the shaking country mouse whispered his goodbyes, saying, “You may have all your fine luxuries and rich foods, but I prefer my simple crusts in peace and safety rather than a grand feast seasoned with constant terror.”
The True Wealth of a Quiet Mind
The flash-in-the-pan illusion of luxury often comes with a hidden price tag of anxiety, stress, and constant fear. Just like the country mouse realizing that a safe, quiet home is worth more than a terrifying banquet, we learn that true peace cannot be bought in the marketplace.
As Scripture wisely notes:
“Better a dry morsel in quietness than a house full of feasting with strife.”
— Proverbs 17:1 (B.S.B.)
May we always remember that the simplest life anchored in Christ’s love far outweighs any worldly abundance traded for peace of mind!
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Walk A Mile in My Shoes, Lord
In Mom’s Shoes by Flickr User Impulses, CC License = Attribution, Noncommercial, No Derivative Works
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Walk a mile in my shoes, Lord, Then walk another mile or two. Order my steps and show me the way To do what You’d have me to do. Lead me and guide me, walkin’ right here beside me, So I can be more like You. Walk a mile in my shoes, Lord, Then keep walkin’ my whole life through.
Those are the lyrics to a chorus I wrote once while having a conversation with God about His understanding of my life’s trials. They began with the words, “Put yourself in my shoes, Lord,” but I plan to move those words to the verse when I fully develop the song.
I think most of us wonder whether anyone else understands some of what we go through. And even those of us who love God with all our hearts may sometimes wonder if He truly understands. I think poems like the popular Footprints in the Sand come for those kinds of wonderings. And, since there is nothing new under the sun, I would guess people have been turning to God with that question for many centuries.
We can know that God does understand by the fact that He did, in fact, walk miles in human shoes. John 1:1-18 begins and ends with statements that declare Yeshua as both with God and God; both Unique Son and God Himself. Yeshua told His disciples that if they had seen Him, they had also seen The Father. And the verse that convinced me that God was not a child abuser but did love me enough to lay down His own life for me–the greatest love of all, is in John 10:30. Here, Yeshua declares, “I and my Father are one.”
Even with these truths, though, we may wonder if God could possibly understand what it’s like to live in our particular shoes. We look at His life and think maybe we could endure if we were Him. Sure, we could be homeless and sleep on a stone pillow, right? But thinking that was the only way He suffered before Calvary is like Bruce Almighty thinking he had too much to do with being responsible for the prayers of only three city blocks. We haven’t worn His shoes to know His times of rejection and sorrow, like when He looked over Jerusalem and wept for her past and her future. In Matthew 23:37 (NLT) we read…
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me.”
How often, I wonder, has He been there to walk in our shoes, and we haven’t let Him. I speak this for myself as much as anyone. I need to be reminded sometimes that it’s not my job to sit on the throne, and I’m not in control of everything. Still, even as I let go and let God be God and fix things in His own way, I want to know that He understands. And when I slow down and read His word, I find encouragements like the following…
- This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. (Hebrews 4:15 NLT)
- Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you. (1 Peter 5:7 NLT)
- “What is the price of five sparrows—two copper coins? Yet God does not forget a single one of them. And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows.” (Luke 12:6-7 NLT)
With understanding that God does care about me personally, and trust that He will lead in the right direction, I can sing from my heart, “Walk a mile in my shoes, Lord, then keep walkin’ my whole life through.” I hope you can too.
P.S. Just for a little encouragement, here’s a video of the song Give Them All to Jesus…
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