Talking with a fiend of mine a few nights ago reminded of a story that resembles very well what it is like when we begin this journey of living out of our hearts on the road of grace.
I have a friend in the UK who built a pond in the back of his house and put some fish into it. After several years the water got cloudy and he could not see the fish or the bottom of the pond. any longer. When he saw this happen he took a short walk down the road to see a Japanese man that owned a fish shop. He explained his problem and so the oriental man gave him a box with 14 pills and told him to put in a pill a day for the next two weeks into the pond.
My friend as instructed began to put the pills in each morning. After seven days the water got cloudier so he felt cheated and like he was wasting his time so he took another walk down the road to see the man in the shop. When he explained what was happening the man asked him if he had done it for the two weeks which my friend said no. “So go back and finish the course and then if it doesn’t work come back” he was told. On the fourteenth day the water was still cloudy so he decided he would go and see him to get his money back. The next morning before he went down to the shop he thought it would be prudent to check the pond to make sure it was still cloudy. When he reached the pond he saw that not only could he see the fish but he could actually see the bottom which he had not seen for years.
He went down to say thank you to the man and apologise for being inpatient. The Japanese man said to him. “From the very first day that you put the first pill things began to change in the pond. The change you saw on the 15th day would have not been there if you quit on the 13th or even the 14th day”.
Friends when we begin to walk down this road of grace it often takes a little while longer for things to change within and without us. Keep going and don’t listen to your impatient ego demanding to see results in order to feel that what is going on is real. Thats what you do when you attempt to control and manipulate God and your life through religion. You are free now – but more important of all you have set God free in your life to do and be who he is and has always wanted to be.
So like Johnny Walker keep walking!
-pablo-
