Shake it off and Step up

A donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. He decided the animal was old and wasn’t worth saving, and the well needed to be filled in anyway.

His neighbors came over to help him. They began to shovel dirt into the well. At first the donkey cried horribly. Then he grew quiet.

The farmer looked down in the well and was astonished! As each shovel of dirt hit his back, the donkey did something amazing. He was shook it off and took a step up.

As the dirt continued to hit the donkey, he shook them off and took a step up. Pretty soon, to everyone’s amazement, the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and happily trotted off!

Is there a possibility that people will throw dirt at you and on you this week? If so, just shake it off and take a step up. Use those challenges as stepping stones to do good, even great, things!

Take to heart these words from 2 Corinthians 4, The Message.

We’ve been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we’re not demoralized; we’re not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we’ve been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn’t left our side; we’ve been thrown down, but we haven’t broken. What they did to Jesus, they do to us—trial and torture, mockery and murder; what Jesus did among them, he does in us—he lives!

Shake it off and step up!