The Story of the Man and the Boulder
Once upon a tizzle, there was a man living in a cabin in the woods who, one night, woke up to see a bright light shining in the cabin.
"Tinkerbell?" queried the sleepy-eyed cabin man. "No, dork. It’s God." said the light. "There is something I want you to do. Get up."
The man inquired what it was, and God responded, "There is a big boulder in front of your cabin. I want you to go out there every day and push, and push, and push against that boulder."
"Are you serious?" the man asked. "That sounds like a terrible idea. And besides, there wasn’t any boulder out there yesterday. Why did you put that there? Am I being punked? Ashton!"
But the man took God’s instructions seriously. Day after day for many, many weeks he pushed against that boulder. But he couldn’t budge it an inch. After awhile an idea came into his head, which he understood to be the voice of the devil. "Look, you don’t have to bother with this. You have done your best. You won’t succeed at this. Accept that you have failed. It is useless. Then just take it easy and do the least amount of work you can."
Before the man would take that advice, however, he decided to pray. He prayed and prayed and prayed. "God, I have done what You asked me. I have been very faithful. Every day for hours I have been pushing against that rock, but I have not budged it an inch. I have failed. Thank you for taking my self esteem down a notch. I needed that."
Then God, with great compassion, answered. "Son, you are not a failure. I asked you to push against that rock, and you were obedient. I never asked you to move it. I asked you to push against it.
"Because you have pushed faithfully and diligently against that rock every day, notice how strong your arms have become. It’s like ‘Whoa, welcome to the GUN show!’ Your back is brown and sinewy, your legs are massive; you are in such better shape now than you were. You have learned a lot because you have been faithful and obedient."
Then God said to the man, "You have trusted me. Now I will move the rock."
That is the way God does things.
So, when life is getting you down, PUSH. When you’re having trouble on your job and things are not working out, well,…QUIT. But then start PUSHING in your OWN business. When the bills are high and the money is low, PUSH. When people aren’t responding to you in ways you hope and want, PUSH. When people don’t understand you, PUSH.
There is more happening than you realize.
Make it a great new year. And may all your boulders be moved in light of your previous efforts and God’s grace combined.
Preston:
thanks so much for the story. I really needed it today. It is a great story and makes a lot of sense. Sometimes I think we forget about the fact that not always what we are doing is doing what we think it should be doing.
I will pass this along to my friends, family, coworkers and business builders.
thanks again you have no idea how much I needed it today.
Dude, great story. Never heard that one…and it definitely rings true. The perspective we’re so sold on is so often tainted by our own limited thinking. But HIS ways are often not our ways…but they’re always BETTER ways than we could have conceived of, even if we don’t understand how.
Word.
…jp
great story!
May I use it on my angel blog?
The best yet!!!
Awesome, perfect.
Great story!. Keep doing what you are doing. God is really useing you in ministry. Thanks 4 the book…….
Nice….very nice!!
Your deep spirituality connects with mine and this is the reason I haven’t deleted you from my overwhelming barage of emails from you and your peers. I have bought other programs and up to now I’ m not sure if I made the right decision or not. Now, you guys are competing with each other for the same people you guys are sending these messages everyday! But as I said, I like reading when you are giving gratitude to God and “giving” your good vibes to people you are sending email messages. I do like you and God contnue to bless you.
Ethel in CT
Preston Thanks for that great inspirational piece. You are truly awesome. Its a wonder to see God at work in your life. Rock on “WholeSale King”, Rock on.
I read a different version of this yesturday, its a boulder in a mans path to work, and the man pushes, and pushes. God says the same, except he makes a path around the boulder for the man. It has about the same meaning, When there are obstacles in your life, keep pushing, God has placed it there for a reason. he will make you stronger, and when you are ready, he will provide a new way to your path. I can’t find the version i read now. so may i borrow yours, i would like to give it to my husband and his local AA group. keep inspireing people, they need it these days. Keep pushing on. there are reasons for things we can’t understand or explain, we can’t see the whole picture but GOD can!! Bless ya!
That was definitely a gem!
Here’s to everyone who understands that your wealth is in the pushing and the pushing is worth the “sweet sleep of the laboring righteous”.
AMEN my bother you truly rock and without a doubt you r truly touching my life everything you are saying in your story is word for word what is happening in my life as yiu see im not gonna get into it but as soon as the good lord provides the funds to further my education ive been gathering all the free info I can to try and put all the peices together and through sheer determination and not taking no for an answer the good is preparing me for my journey and im about to jump on board presston keep rockin would love to meet u some day as your student
AMEN my bother you truly rock and without a doubt you r truly touching my life everything you are saying in your story is word for word what is happening in my life as yiu see im not gonna get into it but as soon as the good lord provides the funds to further my education ive been gathering all the free info I can to try and put all the peices together and through sheer determination and not taking no for an answer the good lord is preparing me for my journey and im about to jump on board presston keep rockin would love to meet u some day as your student
You know, Tim Wire wrote exactly how I feel. I am at another corssroads in my life and I just don’t get it. My kids and myself have had dreams of financial success in the last 2 years about 6 dreams or so. I am just asking God when because I am getting tired and weary. Hopefully, Any day now, He may care enough to move the boulder that remains stubbornly in my path…….PUSH- Pray Until Something Happens——-PUSH…………
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