THROWING ROCKS Part I

             My family moved many times over the years as my father’s work frequently took him a distance from our home for many months at a time. My mother’s way of supporting my father’s work was to move us all closer to where his next project took him so that he would have a home to come to after 12- and 16-hour days of strenuous labor. At that time, my father was a logger on the west coast of British Columbia, Canada.

This move took us to a small island off the west coast. Accommodation was limited on the island when we first arrived. The only housing available for a family of five was a converted chicken coup. Maybe that’s what triggered the somewhat hostile reaction to us three kid’s intrusion into the small community and the one room school.

We walked to and from school each day. Perhaps a mile or so. There were two brothers that also walked the distance with us. Well, I can’t say they walked with us, as they walked behind us and threw rocks at us, taunting us and laughing at us. I didn’t understand this rock throwing business. We had never done such a thing to others, nor was it done where we came from. Every day these two brothers followed us, throwing rocks as they had the day before. One day a gentleman came along in his ox cart. He pulled up beside us and beckoned us into his cart, glancing a good scowl at the rock throwers as we clattered on down the road to the little schoolhouse. The rock throwing and name calling came to a halt soon after our ride with the gentleman. Perhaps he had something to say about it to the brothers or their folks. We did move from the converted chicken coup shortly after to a very nice, large home near the ocean.

The point is. Throwing rocks at others hurts. It intimidates and causes confusion in other’s lives. God showed me something about rock throwing today. Do you know that complaining is a form of rock throwing?

God, our Heavenly Father, wants us to see some things differently. He is calling us higher to a holiness we have not yet known or understood. Hopefully, this message brings lifechanging revelation to our spirits and brings greater revelation of the nature of our amazing God. Amen.

The story of the two brothers randomly came to my mind as I waited for God to provide me with the complete revelation of what He was increasingly, unfolding in my understanding. He was putting His powerful finger on a subject He wanted us to pay serious attention to.

I could not devise this message on my own, it was so complex to me. Where do I ever start with this, Lord?  Then in a moment, for no apparent reason, the story of the two brothers came to my remembrance. Suddenly, the whole mishmash of notes and insights I had assembled over the months made sense.

Holy Spirit has called me to talk to us all about complaining. It is not at all what one might think. It is not at all what I thought….

***Watch for Part II to IV before the end of Feb/23.  Comments and questions welcome.