A Story about Stones, Walls, and Bridges 2

   Continuation from the blog post: “A Story about Stones, Walls, and Bridges” (link here).

   You could feel the sweat trickle down your brow as you finally put the last stone in place. You had just completed the bridge you were working on. It looked like the others you had made plain, simple, and yet very sturdy. You didn’t mind that it didn’t look that pretty. You were just happy that it was complete. But, you work isn’t done yet. Even though you were tired you stood up to finish your work.

   You run over to someone else. She is crumpled in a ball covered in bruises. You’ve seen this before; in fact you used to be like this girl. You used to be scared, alone, and beaten. But then you got outside yourself and discovered the truth. And now you know you must share the truth no matter what. You have shared the truth with others; and the process of sharing was typically the same. You build a bridge, find a person who is hurting, block the stones as best you can, then share the truth with them. You have done this hundreds of times; and you don’t expect this time to be any different.

   A stone is thrown and you pull your shield of faith off your back to block it. Then you kneel down to help the girl. You look around her and see magazines with thin women, makeup everywhere, diet pills, and letters. The girl sits up and is covered in blood. This is worse than any other person you have seen before. She looks like a deer in the headlights; she is very pale and she looks shattered. Another rock is thrown and you use your body to block it this time because you did not have time to get your shield out again. You tell the girl she will be alright now. But you look at her; and see a stone in her hand. You think it is a little strange that she was just holding a stone.

   Another rock is thrown and you block it. The girl looks at you and pushes you out of the way. You fall to the ground. When you fall you see one letter that says things like “you are stupid,” “you aren’t pretty,” and “why don’t you just leave so we don’t have to look at your ugly face?” Another rock is thrown that would have gone wide of the girl but she jumps to the rock and gets hit. She crumples down and begins to cut herself with the rock. You stare in horror at what you are seeing. You run over to stop her but she pushes you away. You start to tell her the truth but she shakes her head, covers her ears, and screams.

   You back away because you have no idea what to do. Part of you wants to give up on her but the other part wants to stay and help. You try to talk to her again but she turns away from you again. So you turn toward your bridge and begin to disassemble it.

   This is a metaphor for life again. There will be times when we want to minister to someone but she will not want to hear it; or she will be more comfortable believing lies. This world is covered in sin. In this particular instance this girl finds her identity in the world. She tries so hard to be thin and pretty by the world’s standard. She believes the lies that the devil tells her that she isn’t beautiful unless she is skinny.

   In fact, she believes them so much that she begins to believe that life is not worth living. So, she welcomes the pain. She wants to feel pain so that she feels something. And she wants to end it all.

   These are the people we are ministering to today. Would you be willing to take time out to help this girl? Are you willing to step out with your shield of faith to help others even if you get hurt? Because, that is what we are called to do.

   What would you do in this situation? Would you give up on the girl? Do you have a problem with finding your identity in the world instead of in God?

   This story will be continued in “A Story about Stones, Walls, and Bridges 3.”

   1 John 3:1-3, Mark 16:15-16, Ephesians 6:10