There is a school run by Catholic nuns in Cleveland, Ohio. I don’t know the name of their Order, but they have committed their lives to working in the Catholic schools in Cleveland’s inner city. Day after day after day, they focus their faith and energy on the education of inner-city students, youngsters whose lives are at risk in so many ways.
One day, out of nowhere, a wonderful gift was given to these nuns. The gift was to pay for the entire group to go on a vacation. Vans were supplied, and all the necessary money for their trip was contributed anonymously. That summer the nuns closed their convent and headed to the vacation spot of their choice, the Rocky Mountains.
Most of them had never seen the Rockies, except in their imaginations. They were awed by the glory of the mountains. They would stop and ponder and behold…..and not be able to take their eyes off the majesty they were experiencing.
They noticed, however, that every time they stopped, Sister Margaret, one of their smallest members, would move to the edge of the group, and then disappear for a while. She’d return sometime later. They didn’t know what she was doing.
So on one particular occasion when they had stopped to behold a majestic view, they decided they would follow her. She stole away from the group and made her way down into a gully. They watched her as she walked into the gully. She bent down and reached under a sizable rock, and then turned the rock upside down. She brushed her hands and turned around to walk back up the trail.
When she looked up, the entire group of nuns was watching her. “Margaret, what are you doing?” they asked. “I’m turning over a rock.” she replied. “Why?” they asked. “Do you do that every time?”
“Yes,” she answered. “Why do you do that?” they inquired. She replied: “Because I will never pass this way again. I want to have made a difference while I was here. So I turn some rocks over so this place will be different because I passed through here.”
Sister Margaret had dedicated her entire life to making a difference. She saw that as her mission whether at school in her teaching role or alone in the Rockies.
Thanks to Douglas M. Bailey for sharing this
I try to make a difference in one person’s life every day if I possibly can. To do this I must turn over some rocks inside of me that are actually boulders that I am always putting up.
What rocks are YOU turning over to make a difference as you pass through YOUR life?
SOMETIMES GOD LETS YOU HIT ROCK BOTTOM SO THAT YOU WILL DISCOVER GOD IS THE ROCK AT THE BOTTOM!
