Recieved in an e-mail today.
Trials
Written by Lynell Waterman
You perhaps recall the story of the blacksmith who gave his heart to
God. Though conscientious in his living, still he was not prospering
materially. In fact, it seems that from the time of his conversion
more trouble, affliction and loss were sustained than ever before.
Everything seemed to be going wrong.
One day a friend who stopped at the little gorge
to talk to him. Sympathizing with him in some of his trials, the
friend said "It seems strange to me that so much affliction should
pass over you . Of course, I don't want to weaken your faith in God or
anything like that. But here you are, God's help and guidance, and
yet things seem to be getting steadily worse. I can't help wondering
why it is."
The blacksmith did not answer immediately, and it was evident that he
had thought the same question before. But finally, he said "You see
here the raw iron which I have to make into horse's shoes. You know
what I do with it? I take a piece and heat it in the fire until it is
red, almost white with the heat. Then I hammer it unmercifully to
shape it as I know it should be shaped. Then I plunge it into a pail
of cold water to temper it. Then I heat it again and hammer it some
more. And this I do until it is finished."
"But sometimes I find a piece of iron that won't stand up under this
treatment. The heat and the hammering and the cold water are too much
for it. I don't know why it fails in the process, but I know it will
never make a good horse's shoe." He pointed to a heap of scrap iron
that was near the door of his shop. "When I get a piece that cannot
take the shape and temper, I throw it out on the scrap heap. It will
never be good for anything."
He went on, "I know that God has been holding me in the fires of
affliction and I have felt His hammer upon me. But I don't mind, if
only He can bring me to what I should be. And so, in all these hard
things my prayer is simply this: Try me in any way you wish, Lord,
only don't throw me on the scrap heap."
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"As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to
remake the world -- that is the myth of the atomic age -- as in being
able to remake ourselves."
-- Mahatma Gandhi