Ever Been Stoned?

Have you ever tried to do something positive with your life? Going on a diet, going back to school or trying to give up old habits can create an interesting stir with those around you! Why is it that just as you try to make a life change there are those around you that do their best to sabotage your efforts?

A friend of mine told me of how when he was a boy he would always go crabbing. If he threw one crab into the crab basket it would instantly climb out, but if he threw in two or more, the others would hold the escapee in the basket with them.

I think we are crabs! We see someone who changes and it threatens our sense of self-limiting security. We cut them down, shoot holes in their ideas, threaten them with rejection all in an attempt to remain unchanged. Many times it's because we don't want to admit to ourselves we have sold ourselves short and face the painful truth that we are wrong and need change.

When Joshua and Caleb came back from spying on the Promised Land, they went against the status quo, the prevailing opinions of the crowd, and courageously said "Let's go get our land!"

What did the crowds do? They picked up stones to stone them and shut them up. They didn't want their self-limiting, faithless beliefs challenged so they tried to shoot the crazy, Polly Anna-ish, glass-half-full destroyers of mediocrity. Fortunately, God intervened and, though it took forty years, their vision of promise and change won the day.

So what about you? Have you had stones thrown at you for your courage to change or have you thrown stones at those who have been daring enough to go against the flow?