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A sermon in a stone
I learned an important object lesson while removing a tree stump in our back yard several years ago. I started the job with some trepidation because the stump was solid red oak and ominously large. I went to work with my trusty chain saw, but each time I got deep into the heart of the stump, my blade would strike something hard—I feared a limestone boulder, prevalent in our neighborhood—that would dull it immediately and render it useless. I went through saw blade after saw blade, whittling only small slivers off the whole stump.
This situation got me thinking about how I tackle what feels like insurmountable tasks in my experience. There’s a deep satisfaction found in achieving victory over a problem. How many challenges, though, would have us give up and give in? If we were to listen to and believe the “accepted wisdom” surrounding a particular disorder, work or family situation, or other challenge, we might be tempted to see it as too big for us to handle. Christian Science throws a different light on such a fear and turns it around with the question: How large is a lie? Mary Baker Eddy wrote in Science and Health: “The more difficult seems the material condition to be overcome by Spirit, the stronger should be our faith and the purer our love” (p. 410).
About the author
Scott Moseley lives in San Antonio, Texas.

April 16, 2012 issue
View Issue-
Letters
Leslie Dill Gondolf, Betty Keith, Charles S. Cohn
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Drop the stereotypes
Kim Shippey, Senior Staff Editor
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French youth drawn to evangelical churches
A.D. McKenzie and ENInews
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A Bible collector's discoveries
Donald L. Brake, Sr.
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Powerful, innocent, and free
Tom McElroy
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Free from the monster view of manhood
Heather Frederick Brown
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Man up to real manhood
Gordon Myers
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A sermon in a stone
Scott Moseley
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A bridge of angels
Nancy Robison
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Listening–and being an instrument of God
Jim Corbett
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God's law defeats cancer
Donald A. Wilson
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Perfectly placed
Malvin Janesch
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Love's language
Maureen M. Loster
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I absolutely had to do it
Margot Ruck
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Spiritual listening amid the political fray
Laura Clayton
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A record of eternal life
Karen Bailey
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'Clear as a trumpet' inspiration heals
Marian English
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'Cared for, watched over, beloved and protected'
Kristen Wenrick Strange
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Face and jaw healed after a fall
David Coughtry
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Unified in service to God
The Editors