Lord, I don’t know why you want me to carry this load….

[micah719]

posted in full from:
“Lord, I don’t know why you want me to carry this load….” « DiscernIt

“Lord, I don’t know why you want me to carry this load….”

May 15, 2011
Originally sent to E-mail Ministry Subscribers on 7/31/2000
source: James Boyd on facebook

THE ANT AND THE CONTACT LENS

A true story by Josh and Karen Zarandona

Brenda was a young woman who was invited to go rock climbing. Although

she was scared to death, she went with her group to a tremendous granite

cliff. In spite of her fear, she put on the gear, took a hold on the

rope, and started up the face of that rock. Well, she got to a ledge

where she could take a breather. As she was hanging on there, the

safety rope snapped against Brenda’s eye and knocked out her contact

lens.

Well, here she is on a rock ledge, with hundreds of feet below her and

hundreds of feet above her. Of course, she looked and looked and looked,

hoping it had landed on the ledge, but it just wasn’t there.

Now far from home on a ledge, her sight blurry, she was feeling

desperate and began to get upset. She prayed to the Lord to help her to

find it. When she got to the top, a friend examined her eye and her

clothing for the lens, but there was no contact lens to be found.

She sat down, despondent, with the rest of the party, waiting for the

rest of them to make it up the face of the cliff. She looked out across

range after range of mountains, thinking of that Bible verse that says,

“The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth.” She

thought, “Lord, You can see all these mountains. You know every stone

and leaf, and You know exactly where my contact lens is. Please help

me.”

Finally, they walked down the trail to the bottom. At the bottom there

was a new party climbers just starting up the face of the cliff. One of

them shouted out, “Hey, you guys! Anybody lose a contact lens?” Well,

that would be startling enough, but you know why the climber saw it? An

ant was moving slowly across the face of the rock, carrying it!

Brenda told me that her father is a cartoonist. When she told him the

incredible story of the ant, the prayer, and the contact lens, he drew a

picture of an ant lugging that contact lens with the words, “Lord, I

don’t know why You want me to carry this thing. I can’t eat it, and

it’s awfully heavy. But if this is what You want me to do, I’ll carry

it for You.”

At the risk of being accused of being fatalistic, I think it would

probably do some of us good to occasionally say, “God, I don’t know why

you want me to carry this load. I can see no good in it and it’s

awfully heavy. But, if you want me to carry it, I will.”

“God doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies the called.”

[king'sbloomingrose]

Wow! That's an amazing story! Thank you so much for sharing, I needed to hear that today.

[myinnuendo999]

That's a beautiful story and thank you so much for sharing it micah.

I always need encouragement and to be realigned back to having the right perspective.

[mattfivefour]

Wonderful story. And apparently true.

For the record, according to an investigation by Snopes, Josh and Karen Zarandona are not the authors of this item; they're merely two people whose names became attached to it when they forwarded it on to others. Its original source is the 1995 book Keep a Quiet Heart, by Elisabeth Elliot, where it appeared in a chapter entitled "Lost and Found." Ms. Elliot attributes the story to a first-person account sent to her by Brenda Foltz of Princeton, Minnesota, who maintained she wrote it based upon an event that occurred during her first rock-climbing experience.

[SonSeeker]

Whether it's true or not doesn't really matter to me. This is one of those little anecdotes that I'll remember when the Lord has asked me to do something that makes absolutely no sense to me, yet He expects me to do it anyway. I'll just think of that ant struggling with that contact lens.

[Eco]

[Hannah]

Wonderful story. And apparently true.

For the record, according to an investigation by Snopes, Josh and Karen Zarandona are not the authors of this item; they're merely two people whose names became attached to it when they forwarded it on to others. Its original source is the 1995 book Keep a Quiet Heart, by Elisabeth Elliot, where it appeared in a chapter entitled "Lost and Found." Ms. Elliot attributes the story to a first-person account sent to her by Brenda Foltz of Princeton, Minnesota, who maintained she wrote it based upon an event that occurred during her first rock-climbing experience.

I have a few books written by Elisabeth Elliot. I thought I recognised the story.

The internet can be a bit like playing Chinese whispers.