Today’s inspirational story is titled “The Gift Of The Obstacle In The Road” and is one that speaks quite a bit to how many of us often choose to avoid overcoming the obstacles that come across our paths in life, instead looking for ways around them, which in turn only cause us to miss out on the gifts that tend to arise when we actually conquer them.
There once was a very wealthy and curious king. This king had a huge boulder placed in the middle of a road. Then he hid nearby to see if anyone would try to remove the gigantic rock from the road. The first people to pass by were some of the king’s wealthiest merchants and courtiers. Rather than moving it, they simply walked around it. Then many others began passing by, loudly blaming the King for not maintaining the roads, not one of them attempting to move the boulder either. Finally, a peasant came along. His arms were full of vegetables. When he got near the boulder, rather than simply walking around it as all the others had, the peasant put down his load and tried to move the stone to the side of the road. It took a lot of effort but he finally succeeded. The peasant gathered up his load and was ready to go on his way when he saw a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been. The peasant then opened the purse, which was stuffed full of gold coins and a note from the king. It said the purse’s gold was the reward for moving the boulder from the road.
I related very much to each of the characters in this story. For much of my life, I was one of those wealthy merchants and courtiers who flaunted the money I had and generally used it to surmount any obstacles that ever got in my way. Thus, walking around those obstacles became the norm for me, especially during my addiction-laden years.
During other periods of my life, I was like those other characters in the story, who simply just complained about things like the boulder being in the middle of the road. In fact, it was pretty common for me to point out all the things wrong in this Universe, rather than ever choosing to focus on ways I could help change any of that.
In both cases, I missed out on the many beautiful gifts that could have come from working through the obstacles that came across my path in life. Eventually though, through a lot of pain and hardship, mostly caused by avoiding those obstacles time and time again, I became that peasant and actually began working on moving one boulder after another from my spiritual path. The gold that has come from continuing to do this has been largely rewarding, in that my heart feels far more open in life, my friendships much closer, and my desire to serve the Lord way deeper than ever before.
And while I’m still working on overcoming the largest boulder I think I’ve ever faced on my path in life so far, that being the health issues I’ve had to deal with for some time now, I know that by continuing to place all my efforts in surmounting it and by holding onto my resilience, my fortitude, and my faith in God, that I will eventually reap a reward that will be far better than choosing to walk around it…
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson
There is thought that all roads lead home. If all roads lead home then weather you walk around it or climb over it or build your house there…you’ll still get home. Just guessing, because clearly I don’t know….but I often wonder if we choose the path that is most congruent with our spirit that we end up in a more contented home which would leave us in a place to inspire others.
Wise words!