The Faithful Wanderer

Story Time

I heard this tale as a young Christian at Michigan State University and I still remember it decades later. My thanks to the unknown author.

One Man’s God-appointed Task

One day, God instructed one of His servants to push against a huge boulder in front of his cabin.

It was his one assignment.

The first day, the believer pushed with all his might, trying to move the boulder. Sweat poured off his body; his muscles screamed in pain. When evening came, he wearily dragged himself back into the house, exhausted.

The boulder hadn’t budged.

In his heart, the man knew it was impossible. But he also knew he served a miracle-working God. His God-given task was to push, and someday the Lord would cause that stone to roll.

Blind Obedience

So week after week, this believer pushed against the boulder with all his might.  Heavy rain blinded his eyes. Freezing winter storms frosted his beard, and iced the boulder’s rocky surface. The hot summer sun heated up the stone, searing his hands. But the man still faithfully continued to push. He didn’t know why God wanted this rock moved, but it didn’t matter. All that mattered was to roll this huge rock.

So he kept trying, while his Master waited.

Daily the believer prayed, “Lord, give me the strength to do what You’ve called me to do.”

But the man heard only silence; years went by.

The rock’s great weight always defeated him. Yet the man never gave up. He tried pushing from different angles or lifting with his back from below. Nothing worked. Secretly in his heart, God’s servant began to despair.

God’s Purpose in asking for the Impossible

Finally, after many years, God spoke audibly to the man again, and said,

“That’s enough. Stop pushing. Your task is done.”

God’s servant sadly hung his head.

“I’m sorry Lord, I’ve failed You. I used all of my strength. Every day. But I couldn’t do it. No matter how hard I tried. I never succeeded in moving the boulder. Not even a millimeter.”

With a smile in His voice, God answered His faithful follower.

“I never asked asked you to move that rock. I only asked you to push on it.

 

“Look at yourself. You’re mentally tough, and now can endure great hardship. You’ve learned never to quit, even against impossible odds. And all your muscles are rock hard and incredibly strong.

 

Pushing on that boulder all these years transformed you.

 

Now you’re ready for your next assignment.”

The Moral of the Story

My fellow Christians, sometimes we just don’t understand what God is up to.

But whenever we obey, the Holy Spirit accomplishes things through us and brings forth eternal fruit which will astonish us when we get to Heaven.

Over the centuries, there have been Christian missionaries who died, feeling their efforts were entirely wasted. All their life they toiled in a foreign land and not one person became a Christian. Seeing no spiritual fruit, they felt like failures. Even their pain-filled prayers produced nothing.

But their task wasn’t to reap the harvest.

These missionaries were sent by God to prepare the soil, metaphorically removing rocks and weeds. They spent their whole lives preparing their mission fields for planting. Later on, the gospel seeds took root.

God gave them a necessary but frustrating task. But these servants faithfully did everything He asked and pleased God with their faithful obedience.

These images came from Pixabay.com.

Author’s note: I ruthlessly cropped this image to focus on the human being doing the pushing.. Here’s a clearer look at the highway boulder’s true size.

2nd note: The featured image on my blog’s home page is a man pushing a large round stone up a hill. It will remind some people of a Greek myth told in Homer’s Odyssey.

According to the Greeks, King Sisyphus’ punishment after death was to be condemned to push a great stone up a steep hill, only to have it roll back down to the bottom whenever he neared the top.