SHAPING THE STONE DOWN HERE
A famous evangelist told the following incident: I have a friend who in a time of business recession lost his job, a sizable fortune, and his beautiful home. To add to his sorrow, his precious wife died; yet he tenaciously held to his faith -- the only thing he had left.
One day when he was out walking in search of employment, he stopped to watch some men who were doing stonework on a large church. One of them was chiseling a triangular piece of rock. "Where are you going to put that?" he asked. The workman said, "Do you see that little opening up there near the spire? Well, I’m shaping this stone down here so that it will fit in up there." Tears filled my friend’s eyes as he walked away, for the Lord had spoken to him through that laborer whose words gave new meaning to his troubled situation.
When we have God’s perspective on discipline, we can have the joy of the Lord in the midst of great tragedy.
(From a sermon by James Bohrer, "When God Applies the Board of Education to the Seat of Knowledge" 1/14/2009)