The parable is told of a farmer who owned an old mule, and one day the mule fell into the farmer’s well.

The farmer heard the mule braying – unable to get out of the well – and after assessing the situation, the farmer decided that neither the mule nor the well was worth the trouble of saving. Instead, he called his neighbors together, told them what had happened, and enlisted them to help haul dirt to bury the old mule in the well and put him out of his misery.

Initially the old mule was hysterical (as you can well imagine), but as the farmer and his neighbors continued shoveling the dirt on the mule’s back, the mule responded rather than just standing there. Every time a shovel load of dirt landed on the mule’s back, he would shake it off and step up!

This the mule did, shovelful after shovelful – shaking the dirt off and stepping up…shaking the dirt off and stepping up…shaking the dirt off and stepping up. The mule continued to do this despite how painful the blows of dirt were, or how distressing the situation seemed. The old mule fought panic and just kept right on shaking the dirt off and stepped up again and again.

It wasn’t long before the farmer realized what was happening, and shortly after the old mule, battered and exhausted, stepped triumphantly over the wall of that well. What seemed like what would bury him actually helped him…all because of the manner in which he handled his adversity.

Life can seem full of trouble, can’t it? It can seem that there is conflict in our jobs, our families, our neighborhoods, our national politics and even our churches. Why should there be so much adversity? Most conflict comes from a selfish outlook – a way that seems right to us (Proverbs 16:25). In the story above, the mule refused to let life dictate his response and rather chose to make the most of his situation to come out on top (literally and figuratively) – a Christian should respond in the same manner.

God allows adversity in our life, in part, to see how we will handle it. If life was predictable and easy, what would we learn and why would we look to God? We should consider adversity in light of Ecclesiastes 7:14 (CEV), “When times are good, you should be cheerful; when times are bad, think what it means. God makes them both to keep us from knowing what will happen next.” Do we have adversity then just so God can keep us off guard? No, God wants us to look to Him and to trust Him in our life, and adversity can help to keep us humble (Zephaniah 3:12). God also wants us to prove all things (2 Thessalonians 5:21) so that we know why we face what we do in life. The adversity in our life that takes away what we might value in this life, God promises to restore a hundredfold (Matthew 19:29) when we become part of the God-family.

What adversity we might face in this life is really just momentary, compared to what God desires for us – remember that the next time you face a painful trial and remember to keep stepping up until you can walk over those walls!