The Biggest Rock

Our church in Virginia was experiencing growing pains.  We had sold our building and were in the process of building a larger sanctuary and classrooms.  The process ended up taking a few years.  


Our pastor likened it to the wilderness travels of the Israelites.  Each Sunday two big trucks would pull up to the local high school and a team of “Levites” would transform the building from a school to a church complete with Sunday school rooms.  As a backdrop for the series of wilderness wandering sermons, we had replicas of articles the Hebrews used in the tabernacle.


Toward the end of our “journey”, we built an altar to celebrate crossing the Jordan into the Promised Land.  As we came into the auditorium, there were big bins filled with stones and we were each to take one to participate in the ceremony.  I shopped for a second and then chose the biggest one I could see.

Steve and I found a place to sit and I looked down at the sizeable rock in my lap.  I was overcome with a sense of shame.  Why did (do?) I need to have the biggest, the best, the first?  That rock became my symbol of my pride.  I participated in the ceremony, but I placed my rock with the others in some shame.

I have since learned that this rock, my pride, is the boulder I carry around my neck.  It is the thing that God most wants me to overcome.  And with His minute-by-minute help, I will do it.  My hope is that my “rock” will become smaller and smaller until one day, I won’t be able to find it!  I know that day is coming when Jesus returns, but what a goal to work toward in the meantime!

John 3:30; Romans 12:10; Mark 10:43-45

He must become greater; I must become less…Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.  Honor one another above yourselves…whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.