COPING WITH FALLING ROCKS IN LIFE: NOT TO WORRY

Rocks that I have collected stabilize a ramp leading up to my front porch.
They also help discourage Chipmunks looking for place to nest. ~~ Photo by Deb

I have a thing for rocks! In fact, I collect them -- all shapes and sizes -- but primarily those of five-pin bowling ball proportions, due to the ease of handling, I guess. They can be found as outline edging for my gardens and lawn. They are also great for plugging cracks and crevices around the foundation of my 100-year-old house...There's always room for one more.

When I spot an interesting stone or rock along the wayside, I struggle with an internal debate...Will I pick it up or not? I simply cannot help but conjure images of the steadfast, the eternal, and the permanent while considering these powerful, but familiar ancient objects of nature.

Place rock and stone in the same context and their symbolism invokes appreciation for their beauty, their majesty, or their tranquility. Then, too, consider the awe-inspiring fact that they are almost as old as the world itself.

Of course, there is also a hazzardous side to rocks. They are solid, unforgiving and heavy. They can do a lot of damage if and when they fall on you, all of which brings me to the purpose of this Wrights Lane offering -- worrying about things you cannot control (as promised in the post immediately below this one).

Allow me to elaborate by asking a leading question: Have you ever driven along highways in the mountains or on roads bounded by high rock formations where "Beware of falling rock" signs are posted?

As an interesting aside, the question was once posed: "Should those signs really warn drivers about 'fallen rocks'?" Both are no doubt equally as hazzardous, but if you're like me you will be pondering that question long after you have read this post.

No doubt there is an unavoidable hazzard involved when driving through rocky or mountainous regions. Your rate of speed has nothing to do with it, nor the way you handle your car, nor the condition of your tires. The potential for falling/fallen rocks is based on past history and it is the chance we take when moving forward.

If, per chance, a huge rock did break loose and come crashing down on your car, what good would worrying about it in advance do? It would not have held the rock in place; neither would it have jarred it loose.

It is typical of those troubles in life which no caution can avoid. The general insurance industry labels such incidences as "Acts of God." This is not fatalism, but a recognition that God is the universal creator, having made certain natural laws that govern inanimate things.

When considering the rocks that are certain to fall in our lives, we should understand that there is nothing we can do to stop them. Can you, by worrying, keep something unpleasant from happening? Do you soften the blow, ease the burden or lessen the pain?

Of course not, but you stand a good chance of reducing your ability to cope with it.

A good deal of the strain and tension of modern life is due to our unwillingness to accept situations that are beyond our control. We must be realists as well as idealists.

For certain, rocks will fall. We just don't know when. Worring about it, fearing it, does not help.

When troubles come, when the rocks do fall, it will not help to reject faith altogether and fling away in revolt from all that you once believed. Where else would you go? To what else would you cling?

What would you substitute for the Christian faith that most of us have grown up in and some of us still pay homage to?

We are not left comfortless, but we have to be in dire need of comfort to know the truth. It is in times of calamity, in days and nights of sorrow and trouble that the presence, sufficiency and sympathy of the Holy Spirit grow very sure and wonderful.

And when rocks fall, not to worry needlessly. What you are experiencing is an "Act of God" that is beyond you.

I handle all the rocks in my life with respect, care and foreboding.