STUMBLING BLODKS OR STEPPING STONES

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They had gone hiking in the Allegheny, a young boy and his even smaller sister.  Uneven rocks lay all around and they kept stumbling over them with increasing regularity.  The complaints of his little sister soon became unending.  “This path ain’t no good at all.  It’s all bumpy with rocks.” 

“Ah, sis,” the little boy grinning, said, “The bumps are what you use to climb on.”   

Another way of putting it?   When we are surrounded by stones, we must seek to turn them into positive speaking sermons, because life sure does get bumpy sometimes.  

            Examples abound.  A man’s investments go down hill and they don’t make it all the way back uphill, so he does nothing but fret and stew about his losses.  It never crosses his mind to consider that what he has left may will be more than many others have ever had.  He is frozen with frustration, a captive of his pessimism.  And from that point on he becomes his own worst enemy.

Another man loses a well paying job but is willing to work at another one paying less, being fully aware that there are many who have no job at all.  His salary may, or may not, get back to what it was but meanwhile he will still enjoy life despite rather than because.  He is not frozen with frustration, rather he is blessed with an on-going optimism.

A mother weeps without ceasing by the bed where a young child lies dying; and then later, curses God for a child now taken.  Another, through her tears, thanks God for having had the child at all. 

The Apostle Paul when he was prison-bound wrote, “I have learned to be content, content with whatever I have.  I know what it is to have plenty.  I know what it is to have nothing.”  There was no contentment in his circumstances.  Jails are not very nice places in any era. But Paul had a contentment his jailers could not take way. 

Just who are you?   When you are between the proverbial rock and the hard place, you often find out who you really are.   So in a sense, adversity introduces you to yourself.  You don’t find yourself at a carnival or on a carousel.  You find yourself when you may have fallen off the carousel and broken something and still look for things to be grateful.  Pain and problems do that, invite God into our lives in a way pleasure never can. 

Adversity drives some folk to their knees that otherwise would never consider it.  Should you embrace adversity as a friend? That may be a stretch, but then again maybe not, because like the ole mule, the only way to get our attention sometimes is to be hit on the nose by a two by four.

He, your Jesus and mine, said it and He meant it, “Come unto me, all ye who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you peace… I will refresh you…”  Believe it.  Believe it with all your heart and mind and strength so that when you need His presence it is just like an old friend come to call. 

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