By Yi Kao
I am in the tofu business and run around busily for my living every day. In the past time, tofu was sold by the catty. Sometimes when I gave my customers twenty or thirty cents worth of tofu less, a thought would flash through my mind: I am reaping slight profits at others’ expense. But then another one came to me: Doesn’t everybody do business like this? For the sake of making money, who cares about the conscience? If I do business honestly, only a little money can be left in my hands after I pay other expenses every month. Only if I can make more money, the conscience could be set aside temporarily. Driven by profit, I gradually lost the conscience—the lowest standard.
In 2010, I accepted God’s gospel of the kingdom. Besides selling tofu every day, some new matters were added to my life: praying to God, reading His words, and fellowshiping His words with my brothers and sisters. One day, I read God’s words, “My kingdom requires those who are honest, not hypocritical, and not deceitful. Aren’t the sincere and honest people in the world unpopular? I am completely opposite as it. It is acceptable for the honest people to come to Me; I delight in this kind of person, I also need this kind of person. This is precisely My righteousness.” Through God’s words, I understood that God likes honest people and His kingdom requires those honest people. It suddenly occurred to me that I always gave the customers a little less tofu than what they should get. My heart couldn’t help churning: Now, I am a believer in God. He requires us to be honest people. However, if I practice in accordance with God’s requirements, I will make much less money than now. But if I still cheat the costumers like before, I won’t be an honest person. God doesn’t shun from me for my foolishness, but selects me and brings me to His home. Supposing He dislikes me, What’s the significance of my belief in God? After careful consideration, I decided: Since God requires us to be honest people, ones with humanity and conscience, I can’t forget all moral principles for the sake of profit, and I will practice as His requirements to be one with integrity and dignity. Hence, I began to give the customers enough tofu as what they paid. After a period of time, seeing others make more money than me by giving less tofu to the customers, I felt awful, believing that I lose the money that should have belonged to me. And I thought: Others running business are thinking how to make more money. How can I make money in such case that I give the customers enough tofu every time? By making money honestly like this, my getting rich is too slow! After this thought came to my mind repeatedly, I just realized: Driven by profit and dominated by the satanic fallacy of “All the merchants are dishonest,” I have already regarded cheating the customers as a kind of proper behavior, so that when I want to be an honest person as God’s requirements, this thought will prevent me from practicing the truth. Only I could do was to rely on God and pray to God, “O God! I’m willing to set aside my greed to run the business fair and square. I am no longer willing to cheat others just for tiny gains, or do anything that brings shame upon Your name …” I was grateful that God had led me to practice the truth, as He always will. Although my everyday income got a little less by doing this, I felt peaceful and assured, and how good it was can be practicing as God’s words!
In 2016, a stranger came to our small town to sell tofu. The price of a pound of his tofu was fifty cents lower than that of our local tofu. What’s more, his tofu, less water in it, was better than ours. Thus, the customers who used to buy my tofu all went to buy his. As a result, my tofu couldn’t be sold out every day, and I had to go to the country to sell it the next day. As I had to spend more time selling tofu, I had no spare time to help my husband grind beans. Yet, My husband alone was unable to use the millstone to grind soybeans. Just like that, when the tofu wasn’t sold out that day, it would take me more time to sell it out; moreover, since we couldn’t grind soybeans to make tofu in time, we wouldn’t have enough tofu to sell. As time went on, my business got worse and worse. During that period of time, owing to the bad business, my heart was fraught with resentment so that I didn’t want to talk to those in the same street who used to buy my tofu but not now.
One day, A local peer said to me half in sport, half in anger, “You know, that guy comes our world to sell tofu every day. Then, our tofu can’t be sold out. Let’s find some guys to puncture his tires. Then he won’t come here to sell tofu any more.” At that moment, I replied in joke without thinking, “That’s what I think too. I also wanna kick him out.” Having said these things, I started to reproach myself: If I do this, not only will I become the evil doer in people’s eyes, but also bring shame upon God’s name. I can’t do this. However, such thought kept popping up again and again in my mind, I had to come before God to pray to and rely on Him.
Later, I saw God’s words: “So Satan uses fame and gain to control man’s thoughts until all they can think of is fame and gain. They struggle for fame and gain, suffer hardships for fame and gain, endure humiliation for fame and gain, sacrifice everything they have for fame and gain, and they will make any judgment or decision to both maintain and obtain fame and gain. In this way, Satan binds man with invisible shackles. These shackles are borne on people’s bodies, and they have not the strength nor courage to throw them off. So people trudge ever onward in great difficulty, unknowingly bearing these shackles. For the sake of this fame and gain, mankind becomes estranged from God and betrays Him. With each passing generation, mankind becomes more and more wicked, more and more darkened, and so in this way one generation after another is destroyed in the fame and gain of Satan.” “For example, if you ask some evildoers: ‘Why do you do that?’ They will answer: ‘Everyone for himself and the devil take the hindmost.’ This one phrase expresses the root of the problem: The logic of Satan has become people’s lives, and no matter what they do, whether it’s for some purpose or other, they are only doing it for themselves. People all think that ‘Every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost,’ that this is just the way it is, so everyone should live only for themselves … this statement of Satan’s is precisely its poison, and when internalized by man it becomes man’s nature. Satan’s nature is exposed through this statement; it completely represents it. This poison becomes man’s life and becomes the foundation of his existence; corrupted humanity has been consistently dominated by this for thousands of years.” From God’s words, I understood that Satan uses the temptation of fame and gain to bind and control people, and also uses the satanic toxins, “Every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost,” to poison people. Bound by the shackles of fame and gain, I put the personal profit above all else. In order to pursue profit, I became more and more wicked, and less and less humane unwittingly, so that I would do the evil thing just for tiny gains. When the peer, stranger, had an impact on my profit by coming here to sell tofu, I considered he was undercutting me. Then I hated him, and even was angry with those who bought his tofu. What’s more, I still wanted to have his tires punctured to stop him from selling tofu here. Reflecting upon these revealing, I just realized: Satan’s poison of “Everyone for himself and the devil take the hindmost” have already become a part of my life, and what I consider is all controlled and manipulated by it. To make more money, to do a good business, to take less time and walk shorter to sell tofu, and so on—everything I thought is for myself. In order to gain these interests of the flesh, I even had the wicked idea to kick the peer out by puncturing his tires. Thinking of this, I realized that I really had been poisoned by satanic poisons so deeply that I had long ago lost the conscience and reason of normal humanity. In fact, it was one’s personal freedom to choose where to run his business, and it also was decided by God. None had right to interfere others’ business, much less to ask others to leave or not. This was the conscience and reason that a normal person should possess. Nevertheless, driven by fame and gain, and controlled by Satanic poison of “Everyone for himself and the devil take the hindmost,” I only looked after my own interests. In order to protect my business from being affected, I was bent on making the new peer leave, and even had the thought to force him to leave by puncturing his tires, and even looked at others with a dour expression. I truly had been corrupted by Satan to the point that I didn’t have a bit of normal humanity. Seeing my ugly face, I couldn’t help hating myself and thinking I could no longer live like this, couldn’t lose my dignity and integrity just for tiny gains any more. Thereupon, I prayed to God, “O God! I’m corrupted too deeply. I Believe in You, but there is no place for You in my heart. Living in the selfish and despicable corrupt disposition, I fought for my own interests, and even wanted to take base and wicked means to safeguard my own interests. I truly have no humanity. O God! I’m unwilling to fight for fame and gain any longer. I wish to confess and repent before You, and to change myself. May You give me faith and strength, allowing me to have power to overcome fleshly desires and no longer be fooled by Satan. O God! I’m willing to live by Your words and to be an honest person according to Your requirements, walking on the path of fearing God and shunning evil.”
One day, at the sight that the peer came again, I thought: I should live by God’s words and can’t treat him according to my flesh any longer. Then, I greeted him with a smile. I never thought that when I didn’t live by corrupt disposition, he should say to me, “I come here to sell tofu. If I sell more, it’ll bring more trouble to your business. Later on, I’ll sell on this street for a while, and then go to the country …” I was astonished at these words and said sincerely, “None are easy to run a business. Wherever you sell is the same for us. There is competition in all kinds of business. No one can corner the market. It’s just a matter that who sells out earlier. Just stay here to sell. It doesn’t matter.” From then on, each time when I saw him coming here to sell tofu, I felt no resentment against him, but greeted him smilingly. We got along well with each other, so that others thought that we were relatives. A man who sold zongzi (a portable savory Chinese rice dish that is typically wrapped in bamboo leaves) said, “People all say, ‘Two of a trade seldom agree.’ For making more money, some of a trade fought against each other. Yet, look at you two! You should be able to stay together talking and laughing every day. That’s rather singular.” My mouth replied, “It’s difficult for both of us to make money. There is no need to treat each other like enemies.” However, in my heart, I thanked God ceaselessly for this was entirely the outcome achieved by God’s words of me. Then I established a resolution: From now on, I will seek the truth hard and pursue to be an honest person, one with conscience and humanity. Afterward, whether he is a peer or a customer, I was able to treat him honestly. Gradually, I became popular among customers. And my reputation got higher and higher and business got better and better.
In my spare time, I contemplate occasionally what I have obtained and lost after believing in God: I lose the chance of taking unmoral means to make money, but feel certainty and peace within my spirit; I lose the opportunity of venting my malicious nature following what the heart desires, so that my humanity and reason recover gradually; I no longer fuss with tiny gains or worry about personal gains and losses, but gain the release and freedom from facing it calmly no matter how much wealth I possess … Alas! That is really unexpected! I can’t help saying thankfully: O God! That’s really nice of You!
Comments
Post a Comment