Sticks & Stones 1 – Will Stones Become Weights or Foundations?
I have a friend who is a counselor. He worked on a hotline and an older lady would call in quite often. One night he listened to her talk about something she was struggling with. She made a statement to him about trying to figure out if her problem was a stick or a stone. He asked her what she meant. She explained to him that some problems are like rocks. You can’t really change them. They are just rocks and an ongoing part of your life. Some problems are like sticks. You can change them. Break them, bind them together and they become something different. So the first question becomes what kind of problem do you have?
The answer to that question will take some time and reflection. At least some of the time it will. Sometimes you can just tell something or someone is just a stick that you can change or get away from. We need to investigate and find out which category the problem falls into. This decision will and can change everything. If we can know which problems we can actually change it can turn our lives around.
If your problem is a stick then you can make it into something useful to help you grow. You can build with it, stay warm with it. A problem that is a stick can change your life into something better than it was before. It is not only realizing that you have a stick problem, but that you change the problems you can. Recognizing the issue is just a start to your solution. It is deciding to change and to make it different that we can work on our problems.
Stones are different though. They cannot be changed. They are as the saying goes “they are set in stone.” So what do you do with a stone? You can curse it, you can try to roll up a hill or you can change the way you think about it. Stones are stones, so I need to look at the stone differently. I cannot let it become the stone that hangs around my neck and weigh me down. It is how we see the stones that will determine what becomes of those stones.
In the Bible there is a story about a man named Moses who had a run in with a rock and it cost him in his life. Here is the story from the book of Numbers.
So Moses and Aaron left the people and went to the entrance of the Meeting Tent. There they bowed facedown, and the glory of the LORD appeared to them. The LORD said to Moses, “Take your walking stick, and you and your brother Aaron should gather the people. Speak to that rock in front of them so that its water will flow from it. When you bring the water out from that rock, give it to the people and their animals.“ So Moses took the stick from in front of the LORD, as he had said. Moses and Aaron gathered the people in front of the rock, and Moses said, “Now listen to me, you who turn against God! Do you want us to bring water out of this rock?“ Then Moses lifted his hand and hit the rock twice with his stick. Water began pouring out, and the people and their animals drank it. But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe me, and because you did not honor me as holy before the people, you will not lead them into the land I will give them.“ These are the waters of Meribah, where the Israelites argued with the LORD and where he showed them he was holy. Numbers 20:6-13 (NCV)
Moses’ reaction to this rock changes everything for him. God asked him to speak to it and water would flow. The people angered him and he struck the rock and it angered God. His reaction to this rock costs him a chance to lead the people of Israel into their promised land. He struck that rock and he was done leading the children of Israel.
We are faced with those same decisions every day. A daily decision about how we will look at our rock. We will change that rock into a foundation when we build on it, not fight against it by how we think. Can we see the rock as something to build on, not resent for the rest of our lives. In the next weeks we will look at different “rocks” that are in our lives and talk about how to change the way we view them.