During the Great Depression, a good man was overtaken by discouragement. Every day, he walked the streets looking for a job that would help him provide for his family. Rejection and humiliation gathered.
One day, the man noticed an old stonemason working on the side of a church building. Weary and depressed, he took a seat on a bench across the street and just watched. The mason was very skilled and even though he admired his ability, he sympathized with the rock. It was as if he could feel every strike of the hammer and he suffered with each cut of the chisel. It was like someone was chipping away at him as well.
As the discouraged man lifted his eyes to the side of the building, he searched but could find no place for the chiseled rock to fit. Worried that it too would lack purpose and might be discarded, he was drawn across the street. “Where are you going to put that?” asked the onlooker.
The mason stopped and pointed to a spot high up near the steeple. “You see that opening? That’s where it belongs. I’m shaping it down here so that it will fit when it gets up there.”
Devotional
2 Timothy 2:11-12 (NIV) “If we died with him, we will also live with him; 12 if we endure, we will also reign with him.”
As pilgrims, we will always be misfits down here. Let Him shape you for a glory that will not fade.
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The devotional above was taken from “52 Days of Praise” by Sonny Childs. Within this book, you will find 52 inspirational thoughts designed to prompt praise. If ever there was a time that a culture needed to look to the heavens and acknowledge the Source of all good gifts, we are that culture!
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