BEWARE OF ROUTINE: LEGEND OF THE TOUCHSTONE

“God is calling people right now to special tasks and special commitments. Some will respond. Bur sadly, many will not, because so many of us have grown so accustomed to our routine, uneventful chronos world that we insulate ourselves. We hold God at arm’s length and thus will not permit the kairos moment of inspiration to penetrate our lives.

According to the legend of the touchstone, if you could find the stone on the coast of the Black Sea and hold it in your hand, everything you touched would turn to gold. You could recognize the touchstone by its warmth. The other stones would feel cold, but the touchstone would turn warm in your hand.

Once a man sold everything he had, went to the Black Sea, and began picking up stones, hoping to find the touchstone. After some days had passed, he realized he was picking up the same stones again and again. So he devised a plan: Pick up a stone; if It’s cold, throw it into the sea. This he did for weeks and weeks. One morning he picked up a stone that felt cold, and he threw it into the sea. He picked up another that felt cold, and he threw it into the sea. He picked up yet another stone. It turned warm in his hand, and before he realized what he was doing, he had thrown it into the sea! This can happen to us. We can come upon a kairos moment and be so dulled by routine that, before we realize it, we throw it away.

Life is packed with kairos moments. My prayer is that we won’t miss them; that we will be warmed by them and keep holding them and celebrate them, not toss them into the sea. My prayer is that we will seize those moments!”