5/23/2004

Sunday Sermon

This was originally sent in by Ginny Young, Southern California, with some minor editing. By the way, we do encourage readers to send in material or ideas.

A FARMER'S DONKEY

One day a farmer's donkey fell down into an abandoned well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally, he decided the animal was old, and the well needed to be covered up anyway; it just wasn't worth it to retrieve the donkey.

He invited all his neighbors to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone's amazement, he quieted down.

A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well. He was astonished at what he saw. With each shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up.

As the farmer's neighbors continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and happily trotted off!

Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick to getting out of the well is to shake it off and take a step up. Each of our troubles is a steppingstone. We can get out of the deepest wells just by not stopping, never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up.

That's a very good moral, but not the end of the story.

When the donkey got out of the abandoned well, the animal

was quite angry, went up and bit the farmer in the butt.

The farmer who didn't want to go to the doctor, even eventually died in agony from the infections of the donkey's bite.

The MORAL as sent by Ginny Young for Today's Sunday Sermon:

When you do something wrong and try to cover your butt, it always comes back to bite you in the ass.