I like the concept of trials being either stepping stones or stumbling blocks.  So often this is so obvious as to amaze me.  I wonder how anyone can help but see the realty of it.  Oh, I know that I miss it myself, while in the thick of it most times.  Never the less, the truth of the matter strikes me right powerfully at times and makes me muse over the entire concept for long periods of time.  We know that a great deal of the answer of why we are here has to do with the answer of building our character and spirituality into real strengths to anchor us solid before the next storm, and this repeatedly until we reach the point that our Lord, is pleased with us and allows us to progress even further on in other ways.  I find that what happens to us (since this varies from person to person) isn't near so important as how we react to what happens to us.  No two individuals receive the same block of rock.  Every one of us from Adam's day to this and from land to land, and family to family and circumstance to circumstance, etc. see things and feel things and understand things and so forth, from a totally different point of view.  What is delicious to one may turn the stomach of another.  What is pleasing to one may offend another.  If you don't agree with me (which is also o.k.), but think about a few of the things that I wish to use as examples here.  I love great paintings.  I love great music and great tasting food, etc..  My love of what I considered great art, compelled me to comment to a professional artist once, about how much I liked a particular painting.  He, not trying, I know, to be unkind in any way to me, replied that it was a shame that the artist had made so many errors in this particular work.  I asked what he meant and so he proceeded to show and explain to me how the colors were not in balance within the picture, as well as the fact that one's eye was encouraged to trail off to the right side of the picture instead of being drawn to the main figures in the work.  Furthermore, some areas of the rendition were "flat" and lacked the "depth" that they should have had, and so forth, until I found that I no longer enjoyed the picture any longer, for every time afterwards, that I looked at this former favorite of mine, I could not keep myself from seeing only the "errors" that had been so helpfully pointed out to me.  I carefully took this chunk of rock and placed it where it could aid me in the future.  At a latter date,  having just received another piece of art that I really enjoyed, I made a point not to ask the artist for his evaluation of the work.  I still like this one, to this day, because I don't stumble on this block, but step on it to gain the needed height to enjoy
the beauty left there by it's creator for me. 

When I was in Sweden, many times I was treated to food at the homes of both members and of people who were investigating the church.  I knew that on many occasions they had spent too much of their money on the meals that they were offering to my companion and me, to please us.  Most of the food that they have in Sweden is wonderful, and I find myself longing to taste it again even after over forty years.  Some of the foods, however, almost brought  tears to my eyes or food back up for a second taste.  I know that these good meaning folks were serving up some of their very favorite foods, but that didn't help them to taste any better.  You learn quickly how to avoid some of these potentially devastating moments and still use these as learning opportunities instead.  The people in Sweden have a saying that I like, to refer to this difference of taste.  We say things like "it's a matter of taste" or "one man's meat is another man's poison.  Their equivalent is that it's a "smak sak".

Even the concept of pain, I have found, is not felt or perceived or registered the same by different people.  When I first thought of this I had to back up a bit and say to myself "wait a second. Pain is pain.  If it hurts, it hurts. Surely this is one thing that there can be no question about".  But stop and think for a moment. I'm sure that this is true in large part,  but we've almost all heard of people having different "pain Thresholds".  This was brought to my notice very forcefully when my little brother Jimmy was diagnosed with a malignant tumor in his head, and operated on.  After the doctors were through, they had a long talk with my parents and my mom related to me in her letter, that one of the doctors had said,  "You should be prepared for one thing now, that you had no way of knowing about before.  The bones that fit together to form his skull, were all pushed apart from each other by as much as 1/4" due to the pressure that had built up inside his head.  I wonder if he has any concept of what it's like not to have a constant pain in his head. He has to have had it for years".  True enough, mom later reported that although Jim had been a very happy and pleasant kid before, he now almost bounced off of the walls with enthusiasm at being able to live life without that constant pain that had always been his before.  How had he been so happy before?  He didn't have anything to compare it with.  To him, painful as this was, it was normal and he must have thought that everybody felt the same.  In some ways, it reminds me of one man that I know of who was raised in the "hill billy" country back east.  He said, "we didn't know that we were poor until I started school and my teacher told me that we were and that we should be wearing shoes and clothes that were not mostly patches."

What I'm saying is this.  None of us can really judge the other as we've not the same values when it comes right down to it as our brothers and sisters. Not really. Therefore, take the block of rock that has been given to you, and make it into your own stepping stone.  Allow it to help you reach new heights. 


All of this really comes from the relief I now feel at long last at being able to write my own blog and insert quick links into it that really work!!!  These little stumbling blocks are now behind me as I have expanded my abilities with the computer and stepping on these stones, small as they are to others, I can take another step up and forward.

sooner,

Badger Bill