Smooth Stones

Wong Ming-Dao is not widely known in the western world but prior to the twenty-three years he spent in prison in China for the gospel's sake he published The Spiritual Food Quarterly. The following is from that periodical, translated by Arthur Reynolds from the copies that he and his wife took with them when they were recalled from China by the China Inland Mission in 1951. In the article Ming-Dao beautifully reveals how the difficult people in our lives are what the Lord Jesus uses to shape us into "smooth stones":

1 Samuel 17:38-40, 48-51

"All readers of the Old Testament are familiar with the story of David and Goliath. Goliath was the champion of the Philistines and he was feared by the whole army of Israel. Yet David killed him and so delivered the people of Israel from the Philistines. He did it with one small stone. Strange! Truly strange! The potentiality of one small stone was so vast that it could achieve deliverance for all the people of Israel. Obviously an important factor in this achievement was the skill of David in slinging stones. But most important of all was the fact that this was a marvellous act of God. For in effecting this deliverance God needed only one small stone to kill the champion--the fierce champion from whom everybody fled in fear. Similarly, when God effects deliverance today He can use even the weakest of believers to achieve that which, without Him, is impossible even for an army.

"The people around David were under the impression that only the use of the sword and spear and javelin could defeat a powerful enemy. But God made use of what man overlooked--a stone. Nowadays there is a common impression that it is only people with learning and ability and position and wealth who can achieve anything great. But God uses believers who are foolish and weak and poor and lowly to do wonderful things for Him. 'God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are; that no flesh should glory in his presence' (1 Corinthians 1:27-29). God could do wonderful things like this in days of old; He can do wonderful things today. He alone is worthy to be praised.

"At the same time we are confronted here with a certain factor which we must not lightly dismiss. It is that when God used David to kill Goliath, the stones that David used were not ordinary stones; they were 'smooth stones' specially selected from the brook. Now the stones which lay in the brook were far too numerous to be counted; yet only a few of them were suitable for David's sling. Before David could go to the field of battle he had to make his way first to the brook and from the thousands of stones which lay there to select five smooth stones for his sling. He had to aim accurately and to hit the enemy's forehead. The stones had to be smooth. We must remember, however, that the process of making these stones smooth enough for use could not be compressed into a day. On the contrary it would require years and years of preparation.

"The stones that we find in brooks or on the sea shore were originally thrown out as a result of huge explosions amongst the rocks. But all these stones at that time had sharp edges and corners. Not one of them was smooth. But as the flowing water swept over them they were constantly rubbing each other. In this way the corners were gradually rubbed off. As the process continued for thousands of years the stones in time became perfectly smooth. Now we often pick up stones like this both from streams and from the sea shore. But do we ever stop to think of the long process of friction which has made them so smooth? The more these stones were thrown together the more their corners were worn off and the smoother they became. At the same time they became more beautiful and more useful. Since stones are inanimate objects they have no feeling, and naturally we never associate the smoothing process with pain. But if stones had feeling when they were in collision with each other for such a long time I honestly do not know to what degree their suffering would extend.

"The people whom God chooses and uses are in a similar situation. They have been saved, and the sins of the past have been forgiven, but many corners remain in their make-up. They are things like laxity, pride, selfishness, covetousness, envy and hatred. Unless these corners are submitted to a long process of rubbing and buffeting they will not easily be removed.

"The question arises, what does God make use of to carry out this process of rubbing? He uses the people around us. That which ceaselessly rubs and polishes a stone is not soil, sand, bricks, or pieces of wood; even less is it grass, leaves, cotton wadding, or sheep's wool. None of these things is hard like the stone. And none of them will ever rub off the corners. The stones are made smooth because they are constantly rubbed by other stones--vast numbers of them. Only hard things can wear out hard things. When the mountain torrents catch up the small stones and sweep them together they gradually lose their corners.

"In the same way, for the corners in our personalities to be rubbed off we need to be thrown together with other people. I buffet you; you buffet me. By nature we like to live with people who are meek, peaceable, humble, patient, compassionate and benevolent. But God seems to go out of His way, as it were, to put us in the midst of people who are evil, violent, proud, irritable, self-centered and cruel. We murmur against God for not treating us more kindly; we lament that our lot is unpleasant; and we long to get release from our situation. We fail to perceive that God has purposely placed us in the midst of people like this so that the corners in our personalities, of which He is well aware, may in course of time be rubbed completely off. Without treatment like this the corners will remain. If you put a small stone with edges and corners into a ball of cotton wadding, even if it remains there for hundreds of years, the corners will not be worn down in the slightest. In the same way, if we live always among virtuous people our corners will remain with us--even perhaps until the Lord returns.

"We often wonder why God persists in keeping us in unpleasant surroundings, in making us mix with unattractive people. For instance a man by nature wishes to take a wife who is virtuous and wise and submissive, yet contrary to his wishes the wife he marries is fierce and excitable. A woman by nature wishes to be married to a man who is gentle and considerate, but contrary to her desire she finds herself married to one who is churlish and rude. An elderly woman looks for a daughter-in-law who is filial and dutiful; but contrary to her hopes her son takes a wife who has no respect for her superiors. A young wife hopes to have a kindly mother-in-law, but contrary to her hopes she finds her husband's mother to be unreasonable and truculent. Masters desire servants who are loyal and obedient, but those they employ prove to be deceitful, cunning, and depraved. Servants wish to work for kind and considerate masters, but invariably they are cruel and repressive. Landlords fail to find good tenants; tenants fail to find good landlords. Superior government officials cannot find good subordinates; subordinate officials look in vain for good superiors.

"So the general situation is most unsatisfactory. Reality rarely matches the ideal. God appears to be hostile to us and purposely loading us with trouble. But as soon as we understand the significance of the smooth stones our many suspicions completely vanish. Some of the people in our families are hard to get along with, and some of the people who share our courtyards are hard to live with, but God has expressly placed us among them so that they may help to rub off our edges and corners. In this situation all that we can do is to maintain thankful and obedient hearts and to endure the inevitable buffeting so that in the end we may become like smooth stones. We shall then be of great potential usefulness to the Lord.

"Even though people treat us roughly, once we have understood the significance of the stones we shall cease to murmur against God. No more shall we opt prematurely out of our situation or seek to avoid the people who do not appeal to us. We accept God's perfect will and endure what He sends so that He can make us into smooth stones all the sooner. The pain which this prolonged buffeting brings to us may indeed be intense, but the advantages we gain by paying this price are such as can never be bought by silver or gold.

"There are so many stones in the brook that you cannot count them. Yet in every ten you cannot find more than one or two that are useable. There was no room in David's pouch for the stones which had not been polished smooth. The process of attrition was essential. In the same way those believers who have not yet experienced trials and afflictions, and who have not yet been disciplined by God, are still not ready for His use.

"We have seen, then, that David had to select five smooth stones from the brook before he went out to do battle. The question now before me is whether God, from this great gathering of believers, can choose five who are polished and smooth and prepared like the five stones of David. What I am even more anxious to know is whether I myself am qualified to be a 'smooth stone' in the hand of God."