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Shalom, by Doug Bartlett

7/2/2020

 
The flames of the campfire gyrated furiously causing a shimmering light to glow on the faces of the crouched men who encircled it. The night was chilly but not unbearably so.
It was obvious who the leader was. He was the only one talking, while the others were listening intently. The leader, whom the men called the “Teacher”, was giving them another amazing lesson.
The men had been terribly curious how they could help achieve world peace. They thought peace would start within their inner circle, then spread throughout their small, middle eastern country and eventually infect the entire planet.
One man asked, “Teacher, what is the secret to peace?”
Another man bemoaned, “ We have six-hundred and thirteen laws on the books and still we have no peace.”
And yet another quizzed, “ How many more laws do we need in order to obtain this seemingly elusive peace?”
The teacher responded, “ You don't need additional laws. In fact, you only need two. Would you like to hear what they are?”
“Certainly,” the men responded in unison.
“The first is to love God with everything you’ve got, not withholding anything back. The second is to love your fellow human beings as much as you love yourself.”
The murmuring and grumbling immediately began within the small group of men.
“It’s difficult to love others when they have so many faults, “ one expressed.
“Yes.” agreed another, “ but then to love them as much as I love myself.”
“Then there’s another difficult issue of loving God with your entire being. There are people on this earth that believe in many different gods and some that don’t believe in God at all,” stated another man.
“It sounds like you guys have your work cut out for you,” the Teacher responded, “ You might want to get started right away.”
Jim link
7/2/2020 05:13:26 pm

Their work is indeed going to be a challenge, and has been since the dawn of time.

Thanks
Jim

Doug
8/2/2020 01:07:57 am

Thanks for your comment Jim. I believe World peace will continue to elude us until the Teacher returns.

Mike B
15/2/2020 06:51:36 am

Great story Doug!!! The Prince of Peace offers an ever lasting Peace, a personal Peace, a Peace that surpasses all understanding. I have experience this Peace, but I’m not telling you anything that you don’t already know...


Comments are closed.

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    Friday Flash Fiction is primarily a site for stories of 100 words or fewer, and our authors are expected to take on that challenge if they possibly can. Most stories of under 150 words can be trimmed and we do not accept submissions of 101-150 words.


    However, in response to demand, the FFF team constructed this forum for significantly longer stories of 151-500 words. Please send submissions for these using the Submissions Page.

    Stories to the 500 word thread will be posted as soon as we can mange.

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    One little further note. Posting and publishing 500-word stories takes a little time if they need to be formatted, too.
    ​Please note that we tend to post longer flash fiction exactly as we find it – wrong spacing, everything.

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