The Rock {Insp}

"The Rock"

A man was sleeping at night in his cabin when
suddenly his room filled with light, and the Lord
appeared. The Lord told the man he had work
for him to do, and showed him a large rock in
front of his cabin. The Lord explained that the man
was to push against the rock with all his might.

This the man did, day after day. For many years
he toiled from sun up to sun down, his shoulders
set squarely against the cold, massive surface of
the unmoving rock, pushing with all his might.
Each night the man returned to his cabin sore,
and worn out, feeling that his whole day had been
spent in vain.

Seeing that the man was showing signs of
discouragement, the Adversary decided to enter
the picture by placing thoughts into the man's
weary mind: "You have been pushing against
that rock for a long time, and it hasn't budged.
Why kill yourself over this? You are never going
to move it."

Thus giving the man the impression that the task
was impossible and that he was a failure. These
thoughts discouraged and disheartened the man.
"Why kill myself over this?" he thought. "I'll just put
in my time, giving just the minimum effort; and that
will be good enough." And that is what he planned
to do, until one day he decided to make it a matter
of prayer and take his troubled thoughts to the Lord.

"Lord," he said, "I have labored long and hard in your
service, putting all my strength to do that which you
have asked. Yet, after all this time, I have not even
budged that rock by half a millimeter. What is
wrong? Why am I failing?"

The Lord responded compassionately, "My friend,
when I asked you to serve me and you accepted, I
told you that your task was to push against the rock
with all your strength, which you have done. Never
once did I mention to you that I expected you to move it.
Your task was to push.

And now you come to me with your strength spent,
thinking that you have failed. But is that really so?
Look at yourself. Your arms are strong and muscled,
your back sinewy and brown, your hands are callused
from constant pressure, and your legs have become
massive and hard. Through opposition you have
grown much, and your abilities now surpass that
which you used to have. Yet you haven't moved the
rock. But your calling was to be obedient and to push
and to exercise your faith and trust in My wisdom. This
you have done. I, my friend, will now move the rock."

At times, when we hear a word from G~d, we tend
to use our own intellect to decipher what He wants,
when actually what G~d wants is just simple
obedience and faith in Him.... By all means,
exercise the faith that moves mountains, but
know that it is still G~d who moves the mountains.
Received on Sun Mar 5 01:47:19 2006