The Blue-Bagged Bandit | Rabbi Naftali Horowitz

A man is driving home from work, one day, and he sees fire engines racing down his block. As he gets closer, he notices that flames are shooting out of his house. He quickly exits his car and runs straight towards his front door, where he’s stopped by a group of firemen. And they say: Sir, you can't go in there. You'll definitely die. That house is completely engulfed in flames. Ignoring the advice of the firemen, he goes racing into the house. He comes out a few minutes later, holding his little child. Let's stop and look at this story for a second. This man was not known to be courageous. In fact, he's known to be somewhat of a coward. This man was deathly afraid of fire, smoke and all of the above. What then possessed this man to run into this raging inferno? The answer is a thought. While the firemen had took all the odds of him surviving and said: There's no way he's going to do so, he ignored all those odds because the power of one thought propelled him into that house, propelled him to save his child. And that thought was, My son is in there. We all face challenges every day, and these challenges seem insurmountable to us. What I found works for me is the power of a thought. A thought that races through my mind as I face that challenge. And that thought, the power of that thought transforms that moment into something that I'm able to conquer. I once had the following thought when it comes to the challenges of looking at things that we shouldn't. I'll tell you a story. There was once a bandit. He used to rob banks. He was known as And the reason was he had a signature blue bag with which he would approach the teller with his gun and request all the money. One day, the FBI finally caught up with him, and it was easy for them to know it was him, because they found the blue bag. As soon as they caught him, they said, Where's all the money? And he said: What money? All the money you've stolen from all the banks you've robbed over the years. He says: There is no money. You see this blue bag? It has a big hole in it. One day, I realized that an entire day goes by and I look at numerous things that I shouldn't, as I drive through the streets, as I walk down the streets, as I gaze at things on the internet, as I'm doing my business, and at the end of the day, I have absolutely nothing to show for it. Every sight I look at is like putting money into that bag and having it fall out a minute later. There isn't even the power of recall, because we are so accustomed to looking at things all day. So in essence, I'm racking up crime after crime and having absolutely nothing to show for it. What a futile, senseless way to spend my day. On the contrary, the power of refraining, the power of withholding and saying: No, I won't look, is so unbelievably powerful. Each time we look, we walk away with nothing. Each time we refrain, we walk away with eternity.