The stone has been rolled away. Don’t trip over the pebbles.
-- Rev. Neely Williams

You are standing in the clearing and the weather looks fine – not a cloud in the sky. You came through your wilderness experience that was not only full of grueling emotional, spiritual, and physical challenges, it also presented valuable opportunities to turn your life around and walk in newness of life. And so you’ve set out to do that.

Except, nobody believes you’ve changed. Nobody understands your transformation. On top of that, you’re not even sure how to live in this new way. Should you walk this way and talk that way? How should you dress? Should your new slogan be, “I’m blessed and highly favored” when people ask how you’re doing? What should you do to convince everybody that you’ve changed? And just why don’t they believe you’ve changed? Were you that bad before that it seems highly unlikely for you to be anybody other than who you were? You weren’t really that bad, certainly not as bad as a whole bunch of folk who will remain nameless. Who do these people think they are not believing you have changed? Can’t they look at you and tell you’re somebody new? You’ll just have to show them, huh?

The stone, that huge rock that blocked the entrance of Jesus’ tomb, was been rolled away and pushed aside. Underneath it and beside it were pebbles, sand, and dirt. When Mary Magdalene and the disciples went to the tomb looking for Jesus and only found His wrappings, they got caught up in the pebbles – believing the person that spoke to them was the gardener, trying to beat one another to the tomb to actually get a look see that Jesus really wasn’t there – instead of remembering Jesus’ own words about His death and resurrection which, of course, was the bigger picture.

So it is with us. After our own transformation, we get caught up on the pebbles, the small stuff that keeps us from focusing on the big picture, the real point of having gone through and survived our storm. We forget that we didn’t go through it to remain stagnated or to even care what others think of who we are and where we’re going. We made it through so that we could have a clearer and fuller life experience, one that is free from uncertainly and built upon the promises God made to us so that we could go out into the world and tell everybody how good God is.

When Jesus went to heaven, we were made whole. Don’t cut yourself in pieces by sweating the small stuff and tripping over the pebbles. There’s no need to focus on anything other than the promise of salvation and life eternal. Nothing else is more important.

Sadiqqa © 2007