Shake It Off and Step Up!

How do you face a challenge or obstacle?  We no sooner set a goal, than we face challenges along the way.  Is your goal worth overcoming any obstacle thrown in the way?  Do you give up or do you persist?

In the book, Beauty For Ashes, Joyce Meyers shares this story.  There was a farmer and his donkey walking through a field.  Suddenly the donkey fell into a dry well.  The farmer, frantically, tried pulling the donkey out with the ends of a rope, but to no avail since the donkey was too heavy for the farmer to lift.  The donkey tried jumping, but could not jump high enough.  The farmer exhausted every idea that popped into his head.  In frustration and weariness the farmer sat on a stump letting his head fall into his hands.  He didn’t know else to do, but gather his neighbors to help him dump dirt into the well to bury the donkey.  He had been a faithful servant to the farmer.  This would be a proper burial. 

As two or three buckets of dirt fell upon the donkey, he knew exactly what was going on.  Immediately, the donkey began crying and moaning pitifully.  He didn’t want his life to end this way.  He knew the farmer had given up.  The donkey wailed louder.  The donkey realized all the crying and moaning would not free him from this pit so he stopped to think.  The donkey, using his imagination, figured out the solution to his problem.

The farmer noticed that his donkey was not crying anymore.  He peered down into the well to see what had happened.  Had the donkey given up and died already?  To the farmer’s surprise he saw his donkey shaking each bucket of dirt off his back and stepping up.  A bucket of dirt drops, the donkey shakes it off and steps up.   The process continues with more dirt dropping, the donkey shaking it off and stepping up.  In amazement the farmer watches his faithful donkey happily step out of the well.

If I had written an extra ending to this story it would the donkey giving the farmer a good swift kick in the behind for giving up.  This seems to be the easy way out.  Or not?  Every time the farmer walked by the filled up dry well, it would be a reminder of his quitting on life.  It seems to me that giving up and burying our goals and dreams is something one would have to live with all their life.  I wouldn’t want to live with that.

Many times in my life, I face challenges.  I don’t know what to do.  I panic and cry.  I make a lot of noise.  After awhile, I discover this does not help.  When I finally do become quiet to think and to listen to God, the answer usually comes.  It’s funny, but the answer is the obstacle.  The obstacle takes me to the next level in reaching the top.  It is important to shake it off and step up.

I encourage all of us the next time we face an obstacle to shake it off and step up.