Rocks

“Rocks are heavy and they hurt people you love. And it’s so easy reaching down and picking them up. No, I ain’t gonna throw no stones at nobody don’t wanna get hit by a ricochet. Ain’t got no room for no rocks in my pockets anyway.”

– Chorus from, “Rocks,” by The Isaacs

Charlie loves to bring me rocks. She will scoot into my office at work after a trip outside and have a new rock she can’t wait to give to me. I find them on my desk, on my kitchen counter, the bench by our front door, in our shoes, and in the cup holders in my car. My Charlie Rocks.

I don’t know what to do with all of these rocks. Usually I put them in the driveway, but I always keep a couple…after all, they were handpicked for me.

We carry a lot of rocks in our lives. Weaknesses, failures, struggles, challenges, and sins. Like Charlie, God knows the rocks we carry that are uniquely ours. He leaves them for us to find on our own, or sometimes he places them in the palm of our hands and asks us to carry them and see what happens.

But we get tired of carrying our rocks, don’t we? They get heavy and we get angry. So then we start to look for the rocks laying beside other people. We think it’s easier to pick their rocks up and cast them in their direction than it is to ask for help with our own frustrations. Our pockets become so heavy with rocks, that pointing out the weaknesses of other makes us feel better. Lighter.

But only lighter for a minute. Before we know it, we feel our backs breaking under the weight again, and our eyes are back to the ground looking for more rocks to throw. Rocks hurt people. Rocks hurt us. They’re heavy, have rough edges, are sharp, and they bring us down.

So what would happen if we took our rocks from Charlie and our rocks from God and asked for some help to carry them? God knows how heavy they are for each of us, and he’s just waiting for us to ask him to bear some of that weight. He wants to push us and strengthen us, but he doesn’t want us to try to carry heavy things without him.

So what if we do ask for help? And what if our rocks get a little bit lighter? What if God uses our rock’s sharp edges to carve out lives we never imagined?

Maybe with our struggles handed up to God, we will start to see the rocks others are struggling to carry.

Maybe we can go to them and say, friend, let me help you carry this heavy thing. Maybe they will feel lifted up. Maybe they will see a little bit of Jesus.

Maybe if we would just trust God with the rocks in our pockets, we would give him permission to carry the rocks of others through us.