September 17. TD Jakes. When TD was a boy, the neighborhood kids called him “Bible Boy,” but because he had a speech impediment, grownups said he would never be a preacher. TD proved those grownups wrong, and he started preaching in a storefront church with only ten members.
On this date in 2001, TD was featured on the cover of Time Magazine. He is now a pastor, author, and filmmaker. Today’s story shows an important event in his early life.
Alone, we can get stuck, but together we can overcome obstacles.
When TD was six, he had to run down a path of hard, Appalachian soil from his house to the school bus stop. Full of energy, TD had no problem running behind his house and down the street with the other kids. But there was an obstacle he just couldn’t get past. There was a giant boulder.
Now, the other boys got themselves up and grabbed the edges of the rock and pulled themselves over the boulder to the other side, and they caught the school bus. But when TD got to the boulder, he froze.
That boulder was so big that every time he looked at it, he was filled with fear. Fear of slipping and falling. Fear of getting bruised or cut. Fear of getting trapped in the blackberry bushes that grew on both sides of the boulder. No matter how much he wanted to climb like the other boys, his feet just wouldn’t budge. Fear held him in place.
Every day, he would run down the path—and he would be stopped by the boulder. Day after day he ran home with plenty of tears and the sounds of the other boys mocking him in the distance. He felt defeated. Humiliated. Overwhelmed. The only way he could get over the boulder was if his mom or dad would lift him over it. Double humiliating.
A new day. Another trek down the path. That boulder would be waiting for him. Of course, the guys would have new insults for the new day.
But this time when TD saw the boulder up ahead, he stopped. His eyes and his mouth rounded. His two-hundred-sixty-pound father was whacking the boulder with a sledge hammer! Thwack. Thwomp. On and on he swung, chipping away rock, bit by bit, until a stairway formed. Before long, TD could step onto the boulder himself, climb the newly made stairs over the boulder, and slide down to the other side where the pathway to the bus stop was clear.
TD looked at his father like a hero that day, and the boulder never gave him a problem again. But his father had also taught a valuable lesson: his father had helped him, so he could help other people. “Little did I know that I would spend the rest of my life with a mallet and pick in my hands trying to help people who were stuck at their own big rocks, helping them over their hurdles into the field of their dreams.”
TD kept the lesson close to his heart for years to come and incorporated it into his ministry. “God has invested a great deal in you,” he wrote, “and for all the Creator has put in you, there is only one thing God wants to know: ‘What will you do with what I gave you?’”
“I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw” (Proverbs 24:32 NIV).
What unexpected lesson is God trying to teach you? Look for it in the obstacles. Alone, we can get stuck, but together we can overcome obstacles.
Jakes, T.D. “Destiny: Step into Your Purpose.” New York: Faith Words, 2016.
Jakes, T.D. “He-Motions: Even Strong Men Struggle.” New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2004.
Story read by: Blake Mattocks
Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter
Audio production: Joel Carpenter
Story written by: Paula Moldenhauer, http://paulamoldenhauer.com/
Editor: Teresa Crumpton, https://authorspark.org/
Project manager: Blake Mattocks
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