The Rock
Has anyone out there had a hard week? A hard month?
Year? Life? Well, you’re not alone. Not that it makes you feel better to
hear that, but everything that happens has a reason. The hardships in our
lives aren’t necessarily from God, but He sometimes allows certain
things that we can’t figure out. Most of us have been in that position
at one time or another.
I have. My husband and I were at a hospital in Boston
waiting for the results of our daughter’s ear surgery. I was
disappointed that the Lord hadn’t healed the hole in her eardrum without
surgery, but I believed that the operation would go well and that she
would recover quickly and regain her hearing. I took solace in the fact
that sometimes God uses miracles, but sometimes He uses doctors. And this
guy was the best.
Then the doctor called and said that there had been
complications. He had easily patched the eardrum, but noticed scarring on
the tiny bones which totally immobilized them like cement. He scraped off
what he could, but wasn’t able to free up the most important one. He
said that in the unlikely event that her hearing did improve, the scarring
would eventually return.
The doctor’s announcement devastated me. With my faith
shattered, I stood in the hallway and cried my eyes out. I didn’t
understand it at all...it wasn’t supposed to happen that way. We serve
the Lord– my daughter didn’t deserve to lose
her hearing. It was bad enough when she had the hole in her eardrum, but
why did it have to get worse? There was supposed to be a fairy-tale ending
where we all lived happily ever after.
I came home and poured my heart out to my niece, seeking
her advice. Her answer surprised me. She said, "Maybe it’s not
about what God is doing with your daughter in this situation, but what He’s
doing with you." Then she proceeded to tell me this story:
Once upon a time there was a man. The Lord came to him
and said, "See that huge boulder over there? I want you to push
against it every day with all your strength." So the man began to
push on the enormous rock day after day, his shoulders set squarely
against its cold, massive surface, but it never moved. He toiled from
sunup to sundown for many years, feeling that each day had been spent in
vain.
Since the man was showing signs of discouragement, the
adversary decided to place 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? It’s not going to move." Thus,
he gave the man the impression that he was a failure and that the task was
impossible, which disheartened him even further. Finally the man asked
himself, "Why am I doing this? This huge rock isn’t ever going to
move. I’m just wasting my time. I give up. Lord, why would you ask me to
do something so hard? It just doesn’t make sense."
The Lord replied compassionately, "My child, 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, and you have done so. Never
did I tell you that I expected you to move it. Now you come to me with
your strength spent, thinking that you have failed. But is that really so?
Look at your strong, muscled arms and tough hands. Your back is sinewy and
brown, 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. The work that I have asked you to do is to prepare you for things
that you are going to face down the road, and I want you to be ready. You
don’t need to know all the answers now– you
just need to obey, which you have done. I, my friend, will now move the
rock."
Do you have a boulder in your life that you keep pushing
on and it just won’t budge? The Lord never told us that we wouldn’t
have any problems when we became Christians–
He just promised to make them all work out for our best. "And we
know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who
have been called according to his purpose." (Rom. 8:28) If we
exercise our faith, we can rest assured that God still moves mountains. V
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