Coffee for Your Heart
Holley Gerth
"Help When Life Feels Like a Little Too Much"
A friend once told me an African children's story about an ant and elephant who came to the edge of a wide, swinging bridge. The ant looked at the spaces between the planks, the steep drop below and the long distance to the other side.
"I cannot go," she said to her friend the elephant, "It is too much for me." The elephant replied, "Climb on my back and I will carry you."
Delighted the ant scrambled on top of the elephant. At first her heart pounded with fear but as the elephant took one steady step after another she began to calm down. She felt the wind swirling around her and it seemed she could touch the sky. She saw a lizard slink past and looked down at it triumphantly.
When they finally reached the other side the ant scampered to the ground again and thanked her friend. When she looked back, the large bridge was swaying back and forth. The ant exclaimed to the elephant, "Look how we made the bridge shake!"
Little story. Big truth.
We all come to places that seem like they're too much for us. Sometimes like the ant we say, "I can't do this." So we set down our hopes and stay right where we are. Other times we say, "I will conquer this even if it kills me." Then we wear ourselves out trying as hard as we can, yet we live with the worry that one wrong move will take us down.
But God offers a better way. He says, "I am the Lord All-Powerful. So don't depend on your own power or strength, but on my Spirit" (Zechariah 4:6 CEV). To my heart this sounds like, "Depend on Me to get you where I want you to go. Rely on My strength to be enough for what I've asked you to do. You can trust Me to take care of you."
Our smallness never has to stop us because "all things are possible with God" (Matthew 19:26). He's the One who carries us. He's the world-changer, difference-maker and heart-transformer. He makes the bridge shake. Our role is simply to be willing to go along for the ride and hang on to the One who promises to get us to the other side.
XOXO
Holley Gerth
Holley Gerth
"Help When Life Feels Like a Little Too Much"
A friend once told me an African children's story about an ant and elephant who came to the edge of a wide, swinging bridge. The ant looked at the spaces between the planks, the steep drop below and the long distance to the other side.
"I cannot go," she said to her friend the elephant, "It is too much for me." The elephant replied, "Climb on my back and I will carry you."
Delighted the ant scrambled on top of the elephant. At first her heart pounded with fear but as the elephant took one steady step after another she began to calm down. She felt the wind swirling around her and it seemed she could touch the sky. She saw a lizard slink past and looked down at it triumphantly.
When they finally reached the other side the ant scampered to the ground again and thanked her friend. When she looked back, the large bridge was swaying back and forth. The ant exclaimed to the elephant, "Look how we made the bridge shake!"
Little story. Big truth.
We all come to places that seem like they're too much for us. Sometimes like the ant we say, "I can't do this." So we set down our hopes and stay right where we are. Other times we say, "I will conquer this even if it kills me." Then we wear ourselves out trying as hard as we can, yet we live with the worry that one wrong move will take us down.
But God offers a better way. He says, "I am the Lord All-Powerful. So don't depend on your own power or strength, but on my Spirit" (Zechariah 4:6 CEV). To my heart this sounds like, "Depend on Me to get you where I want you to go. Rely on My strength to be enough for what I've asked you to do. You can trust Me to take care of you."
Our smallness never has to stop us because "all things are possible with God" (Matthew 19:26). He's the One who carries us. He's the world-changer, difference-maker and heart-transformer. He makes the bridge shake. Our role is simply to be willing to go along for the ride and hang on to the One who promises to get us to the other side.
XOXO
Holley Gerth
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