Friday, September 13, 2002
Friday, September 13, 2002
"Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple."
One day the foreman came by and asked him, "How come every time you hit the tree, you say,
'Oh, Adam?'" Sam said, "Because Adam, my forefather, sinned against God. God cursed him
and said that he would have to work from that time on. So every time I hit this ax against the
tree, it reminds me that if Adam hadn't sinned, I wouldn't have to work."
One day his supervisor came and said, "Come here, Sam." He took him to his big, plush,
palatial ten-thousand-square-foot mansion. He said, "It's all yours. You can live in it; you can
do whatever you want. You've got a swimming pool, a tennis court, servants--everything.
Everything in this house is yours. I'm giving it to you because I don't want you to struggle with
that Adam mentality. I ask only one thing: Don't lift up the box on the dining room table. Enjoy
everything else in the house, be what you want to be, do your own thing, but that box on the
dining room table, do not touch."
Sam said, "No problem. I can handle it." So Sam played tennis every day, went swimming, ate
three meals a day. But after about five months, he saw that box. That bothered him. He
wanted to know why, if he can have everything, that box was so important. He said, "No, I'm
not going to touch it; I'm not going to jeopardize my time here."
After a year he had tried everything. He had gotten used to everything. There was nothing new
anymore. There was only one thing new in that house, and that was that box. And so one day,
when nobody was looking, he lifted up the box just a little bit. Out of that box ran a little, teeny
mouse that hid, and Sam couldn't catch it and couldn't find it. The supervisor came and noted
that the box had been lifted. He went to Sam and said, "Now Sam, I warned you. Go back out
into the forest and pick up your ax and chop again." The next time the supervisor came by he
heard Sam saying, "Oh, Sam. Oh, Sam."
Sam came to see that he couldn't blame his predicament on Adam. Only on Sam. It is easy to
blame others. Our call is to pick up the cross of Jesus Christ and live life to the fullest!
(Luke 14.27
NRSV)
There is a story about a forester named Sam. Old Sam would be out chopping down the tree.
You could hear him say one phrase: "Oh, Adam. Oh, Adam." Every time he hit that tree, he'd
say, "Oh, Adam."
Lord Jesus, may I carry your cross with honor and thanksgiving. Amen.
 Click here to Vote for this site! |
 Click here to Subscribe! |
|---|