This story is as I remember it told by Mary Manin Morissey. I like it very much and think it has a wonderful moral. So here we go:
“There is this story about the man coming into the bank to cash a check. He goes up to the till and hands the check to the cashier asking him to hand him the money. That’s fine the cashier says: if you only sign here on the back. I can’t do that the man says, you have to give me the money first, and then I’ll sign it.
No, I cannot do that, you have to sign first. But what if I sign and you don’t give me the money? That won’t happen the cashier said, and besides, it is against the bank procedure to give you the money before you’ve signed. So the argument goes until the cashier says: Sorry I can’t help you, you have to leave. Try another bank down the road.
So he did, and the same happened, then another bank and yet another until there was a young guy behind the till that got fed up with him, pulled out a rubber bat from under the counter and threatened to hit him if he did not sign the check right away.
Check signed and money in hand he triumphantly went back to the first bank, straight up to the man behind the till and told him: I got my money at another bank down the road. What happened the cashier asked? Well, nobody told me what I had to do the same way as they did“.
Isn’t it often like this, we want some of our dream first, and then commit! We don’t quite trust that if we give first we will receive. We are so conditioned to demand first without being willing to give. But if you want to receive you have to give first. You have to commit, you have to sign the check.
This is what the farmers do all the time. They put the seeds in the earth, and as you sow so shall you reap. How often have you not been sitting in front of the fireplace saying: if you give me heat, I’ll give you wood. It does not work like that, so why do we think it should work in all other aspects of life. As you sow, so shall you reap, start sowing folks, it is the only way!
