Phylbert’s
Words
to the
Wise

A PARABLE IS TOLD of a farmer who owned an old mule. One unfortunate day the mule fell into an unusable dry-well on the farmer's property. The farmer heard the mule's piteous braying and discovered the animal's plight.

AFTER CAREFULLY ASSESSING the situation, the farmer sympathized with the mule, but decided that the aged mule was not worth saving. He also figured that the empty well was a definite safety hazard. He decided to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak, and enlisted the help of his hired hands and a few neighbors to haul dirt and just bury the mule by filling up the well.

AT FIRST, THE MULE WAS UNDERSTANDABLY HYSTERICAL! After all, they were going to bury him alive! But as the farmer and his helpers continued to shovel and piles of dirt kept falling on the mule, a thought struck. It gradually dawned on him that every time a bushelful of dirt landed on his back and head, he could shake it off, stamp it down, and step up a few inches higher!

"SHAKE OFF, STEP UP; shake off, step up; shake off, step up," he mentally repeated to encourage himself. No matter how painful the blows or how distressing the predicament, the old mule fought back panic and kept on shaking off and stepping up as the dirt continued to fall.

IT WASN'T LONG BEFORE the old mule, battered, dirty, and exhausted, stepped triumphantly over the wall of the well! What at first seemed as if it would bury him actually helped him--all because of the manner in which he handled his adversity.

THAT'S LIFE. If we face our problems and respond to them positively, refusing to give in to panic, bitterness, or self-pity, the adversities that come upon us usually have within them the potential to benefit and bless us.

My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
(James 1:2-3)
There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
(I Corinthians 10:13)