19 April 2003 20:52
i happened to be going through some old emails, and i happened to come across this one. i also happen to know that i happened to send it to half of you's, but since that happened to be a year ago and i'd already managed to forget the story, i think it's okay to post it (plus it's my blog. i can be lazy and repost old work if i want to).yes, i know this looks suspiciously like a forward. but if you're the type who gets great delight out of deleting forwards, then you can thank me, because i've just given you cause for delight when you hit the delete button :). anywayze, i'm not real fond of forwards either, but i happen to think this one is kind of cute and even somewhat meaningful (yes, it's a religious one, but don't worry, i cut most of the sappy religious mumbo-jumbo off the end). and no, you won't go to hell if you don't forward this. if you do forward this, it's going to take more electricity, they'll have to burn more coal, and the greenhouse effect will worsen, and we'll all die. so there's good reasons not to forward it if you ask me. still glad you didn't ask me?
the title is at the end. i moved it there so it wouldn't give away the story. but if you really want to read it, it's at the end.
Brenda was a young woman who was invited to go rock climbing. Although she was scared to death, she went with her group to a tremendous granite cliff. In spite of her fear, she put on the gear, took a hold on the rope, and started up the face of that rock. Well, she got to a ledge where she could take a breather. As she was hanging on there, the safety rope snapped against Brenda's eye and knocked out her contact lens. Well, here she is on a rock ledge, with hundreds of feet below her and hundreds of feet above her. Of course, she looked and looked and looked, hoping it had landed on the ledge, but it just wasn't there. Here she was, far from home, her sight now blurry. She was desperate and began to get upset, so she prayed to the Lord to help her to find it. When she got to the top, a friend examined her eye and her clothing for the lens, but there was no contact lens to be found. She sat down, despondent, with the rest of the party, waiting for the rest of them to make it up the face of the cliff. She looked out across range after range of mountains, thinking of that Bible verse that says, The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth. She thought, Lord, You can see all these mountains. You know every stone and leaf. At the bottom there was a new party of climbers just starting up the face of the cliff. One of them shouted out, "Hey, you guys! Anybody lose a contact lens? Well, that would be startling enough, but you know why the climber saw it? An ant was moving slowly across the face of the rock, carrying it! Brenda told me that her father is a cartoonist. When she told him the incredible story of the ant, the prayer, and the contact lens, he drew a picture of an ant lugging that contact lens with the words, "Lord, I don't know why You want me to carry this thing. I can't eat it, and it's awfully heavy. But if this is what You want me to do, I'll carry it for You." I think it would probably do some of us good to occasionally say, "God, I don't know why you want me to carry this load. I can see no good in it, and it's awfully heavy. But, if you want me to carry it, I will." God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called.
THE ANT AND THE CONTACT LENS A true story by Josh and Karen Zarandona
i guess one reason this little ant story thing caught my eye is this: i'm not too sure why i'm here at this school. i'm pretty sure it's not for aviation (which happens to be my major). so here's what i've come up with. i'm either here for my personal growth, or i'm here to help somebody else. knowing how God works, i think it's extremely likely that i'm here for both. but i find it comforting to think about. especially when it doesn't seem like i'm doing much by way of growth, it's nice to think that i have another purpose here beyond myself. that the people i'm interacting with are learning stuff from me. hopefully it's not stuff not to do, but oh well. another benefit, that makes all people happier, is that it makes me more careful in how i relate to others, so that i'm not a jerk. i'm still very unkind at times, but that thought is there, growing in the back of my mind. if i'm teaching others something, then wow, that has a huge effect on my mindset. think about it. now i have a responsibility, my actions are affecting others. so when i'm doing something and i have no idea why i'm doing it. well, mentally, i have a reason for doing it. i'm helping somebody out. yet God's good at weaving things together. i'm doing something for me too. who knows? maybe because that ant carried the lens to that position, he wound up near a food source that he wouldn't have found otherwise.
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