Shake It Off and Step Up!

A parable is told of a farmer who owned an old mule. The mule fell into the
farmer's well. The farmer heard the mule braying and went to the site.
After assessing the situation the farmer sympathized with the mule but
decided that neither the mule nor the well was worth the trouble of saving.
Instead he called his neighbors and asked them to bring their shovels and
bury the poor mule and put him out of his misery.

The mule seemed hysterical. When the dirt struck his back he shook it off.
As the farmer and his friends continued to shovel a thought struck the
farmer. After each shovel of dirt was thrown onto the mule he said, "Shake
it off and step up." The mule did what he asked, after every shovel of dirt.
After a time the old mule stepped triumphantly out of the well. What seemed
to bury him actually became his road to freedom.

There is an alternative to every impossible situation. The way is not always
visible to us. But our task is not to work miracles, that is up to God. Our
responsibility is to prepare the way, committing every ounce of energy we
have to the possibility of the transforming power of God, remembering that a
single act of kindness can bring hope to generations yet to come.

Keith Wagner, Possibilities Unlimited