There was once a small stone sitting at the bottom of a wide, lazy river. All around it, the water rushed past, carrying leaves, twigs, bright fish, even entire logs that had broken free upstream. They spun, danced, disappeared around the bend, always moving forward while the stone stayed exactly where it had been for years. The stone watched them go and felt heavy.  “Why am I still here?” it thought.“ Everyone else is getting somewhere. I’m just stuck.”

Seasons turned. Rain came hard and made the current wild. Sun baked the water low and slow. The other stones sometimes rolled a little or got lifted and dropped somewhere new. But this one remained. One quiet afternoon, after a long dry spell, the river level dropped so low the stone could finally see it’s own reflection clearly for the first time.

It wasn’t smooth or shiny like river pebbles that tumble forever. It was rough, cracked in places, moss growing in the grooves. But it was solid. Deeply shaped. The kind of shape that only comes from staying put through floods and droughts, through being ignored and being battered. The stone realized something, the river hadn’t forgotten it. The river had been polishing it in secret slowly, invisibly using every current that brushed past, every pebble that knocked against it, every time it felt left behind. The fast-movers? They were gone. Scattered. Some broken on rocks downstream, some dried out on the bank when the water changed course.

The stone was still here. Not because it was lucky. Because it endured. And when the next big rain finally came and the river rose again, the stone didn’t suddenly shoot forward like the others. It shifted just a few inches. But those few inches were earned. Deep. Real. Sometimes the people who look like they’re “stuck” are the ones the current has been working on the longest. They don’t move flashy. They move permanent. And one day when the water finally lifts them they won’t just float. They’ll carry the shape of everything they survived. You’re not behind. You’re being carved. BELIEVE!

If my little stone story managed to crack open even a sliver of light for you...tell me, what part of the river are you in right now? 🤔