Life’s Fish Barriers

I’m writing this as I can remember it being told to me by a wise Professor at the University I attended. He was my mentor in a project I was involved in doing. I had experienced a series of very discouraging challenges and was about to quit. When he learned of my intent, he took me aside and told me about a classic experiment that Charles Darwin had observed.

In this experiment Darwin placed a large fish in an even larger tank of water. He fed it smaller fish to keep it perky and happy for weeks. Then he placed a thick piece of heavy clear glass down the middle of the tank and perfectly separated the large fish from half of its usual swimming space. He continued to feed the large fish with smaller fish. However, instead of placing the smaller fish on the side of the tank occupied by the larger fish he put the live food on the opposite side apart from the larger flipper.

Well, as expected the larger fish swam swiftly toward the bait and banged its head on the thick glass partition. It did this many times and then it stopped trying to get its meal. It realized that it just wasn’t going to get the food it desired. Hours went by and then Darwin removed the invisible glass barrier. The larger fish didn’t realize the barrier had been there in the first place all he knew was that something stopped him from getting his food. So, when the real barrier was removed the fish didn’t realize he could easily swim to eat the food. After a few more hours of not trying to eat the smaller fish the larger fish just rolled over and died. He'd given up.

My wise Mentor then told me that I was like that large fish. I’d been banging my head against some of the problems of my project and I was discouraged. He continued by telling me that Heavenly Father knew I wanted to quit trying, but that God had removed the barrier to my completing my work and now all I had to do was exercise stronger faith. He'd shown me with this simple explanation that the obstacles to finishing my work were really not as strong as I assumed they were as long as I had faith that God would help me finish.

I took his wise counsel to heart and returned to my apartment. Once there, I asked if heavenly Father was with me. I was calmed as I felt an encouraging strength flow into my heart.

This can be compared to how some of us may handle life’s challenges. In many ways each of us have hard experiences that seem to flatten the drive and will to believe we can accomplish our goals. The barriers to reaching our objectives are only as strong as we believe they are.

We must have faith that God will act to help us remove our obstacles and that by our faith in Him all things are possible.