Story Time – John 14: 1a

“Do not let your heart be troubled.”

Spending time in God’s Word is the best investment a person can make. The book is packed with life treasures. Whatever your needs are, God’s Word has something for it.

Lately, I’ve been struggling. You know how it is. Personal issues can be like a stone in your shoe. Small things at first, but as the days go along they become more and more irritating. Finally, it gets to the point where a person wonders if they can go another step.

Which reminds me of a story…

🙂

When I was a kid the grade school’s janitor was a man named Mr. Smart. He was a nice old guy who was always around the school fixing things or cleaning up. He loved kids and he loved goofy stories.

One of the stories he told was about a young man who lived in a small town. Nobody ever called him by his name. They just called him Stupid. Every time this happened it made him mad. Over the years he came to hate the name so much that he decided to leave home forever.

The next morning he packed his few belongings in a knapsack and slung it on a stick over his shoulder. Before anyone else was awake he headed out of town. As he walked he whistled not knowing where he was going but glad to be going there.

After a while, he noticed that he had a pebble in his boot. It didn’t bother him much but it was uncomfortable. As he walked he thought about the great life ahead of him where everyone called him by name and no one ever called him “stupid.” When he stopped to think about his foot again it was hurting. Even so, he didn’t want to take the time to unlace his boot and take the pebble out.

When evening came he was limping badly. He knocked at the door of a farmhouse and the people there invited him in for the night. He enjoyed their company and most of all, not being called “stupid.”

After dinner, they all sat around the fire and one of the kids ask their visitor where he was from and where he was going. Being careful not to tell them why he left home he simply described himself as a wanderer and talked about his day. As he took off his boots by the fire he explained that he had picked up a pebble that morning and instead of taking it out of his boot had walked all day with it.

The kids looked at his swollen foot and then looked at each other in amazement. Finally, one of them looked at their visitor and said, “You must be stupid!”

“Oh no,” he thought. “They know me here, too!!”

Mr. Smart would laugh and laugh at his joke. He made us kids laugh, too. But he also taught us some wisdom. As Forrest Gump would later say on the big screen, “Stupid is as stupid does.”

The sad part of this story is that we are all a little stupid in different ways. Just because we know something that someone else does not know doesn’t mean we are all that much smarter. Each of us sins, and each of us has his or her own trouble in life. Which brings us back to today’s verse.

Let’s Discuss: How do you get your heart to not be “troubled?”