The Disciple and the Boulder
For a long time after the Disciple came into the Garden of the Beloved, the Lover gave him light tasks about the Garden, until at last the Disciple, being very zealous to do some great task for the Beloved, chafed against the lightness of his toil. So he said to the Lover, “Sir, please give me some heavier work that I can do for the Beloved, for I greatly wish to do Him greater service.”
The Lover thereon took him to a distant part of the Garden where there was a great boulder and said to him, “This boulder would fit well in the rock garden of the Beloved. If you want a heavy task, move the boulder there.”
The Disciple was amazed, for it seemed to him that the boulder was too big for any man to move, nevertheless he was ashamed not to attempt the task he had been allotted. So when the Lover departed he struggled throughout the whole day to move the boulder and actually did with extreme exertion move it a few inches. Toward evening, when he was utterly exhausted, the Lover came to him and easily lifting the boulder in his arms carried it to the rock garden. The Disciple was astonished and said to the Lover, “Sir, please tell me the meaning of this task and whence your marvelous strength comes.”
The Lover replied, “My muscles like my faith have become strong little by little by carrying out my daily tasks in the Garden, but you by demanding a task for which you are not yet fitted have wasted a whole day when you might have been usefully serving the Beloved by weeding his Garden.”
So the Disciple saw that a man must first undertake little acts of love and only as his skill and strength increase through doing these undertake greater.
