This post comes from my good friend Dina Bright who heard this story at the Kabbalah Centre in Los Angeles. The lesson within the story is about persevering even when you think you’re not accomplishing anything.
Push Your Rock
There once was a man who had a huge desire to please God, so he prayed day and night until one day a voice spoke to him, “I want you to go and push a rock.”
The man woke up the next morning elated and ran outside to find a huge boulder. He began pushing it, but nothing happened, so he kept at it all day. The next day he did the same, yet it still didn’t budge an inch. He went on like that for three months, until one day he got so frustrated that he stopped pushing.
That night he had a dream, and the same voice asked him, “Why did you stop pushing?”
“Nothing happened,” he answered.
“Nothing happened? Look at you! Look how determined and focused you’ve become. Look how powerful your muscles are now. You’re no longer the person you were when you started. Besides, I didn’t tell you to move the rock; I told you to push it. I’ll move the rock when it’s time.”
Sometimes we just have to keep pushing our rock. It’ll move at the right moment, in the perfect time, when we least expect it. Meanwhile, amazing things are happening, even if you’re not noticing them yet. Tenaciousness is a wonderful quality to have and it shows up best when we just continue on, no matter what the results are.
Kathleen