The Earth Dirt Story, Lesson in Faith By Dr. Marcus Bach

(Excerpted from a lecture given at a Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship retreat in Charlotte, NC, 8/23/74.)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My wife and I have a cabin here in North Carolina, which I am returning to this evening.

A year ago, we ordered a load of dirt, to be delivered and poured on a certain side of a retaining wall near the cabin.

When we arrived at the cabin, the man delivering the dirt had poured it on the wrong side of the wall. I was kind of annoyed at this, but my wife was more annoyed and she was bugging me to go out and move that truckload of dirt with a shovel. I do not know if you have ever tried that or not, but it had been raining about 30-days before we came, which complicated the situation.

A few days later, in obedience to her nudging and threats, I put on my rain slicker and hat, got the shovel from my workshop and I went out and I dug into this dirt. In fact, a hippie friend said, "Don’t call it dirt, call it earth." Beautiful.

So I went out and I attacked this earth-dirt. I had put a couple of shovel fulls on the other side of the wall and, well, you know how heavy it is and the kind of work it is. I like to exercise, but not work!

So, I stood there in the rain and I said to myself, "Marcus, you have been researching religion for thirty years. You talk about it a good deal. You think you know something about it. Once upon a time there was a man who said if you have the faith of a mustard seed you could remove mountains. And you can’t even remove this hill of dirt?"

And so thinking this, I said, "Thank you, Father, and I went into the house."

I put down the shovel, went into the house where my wife had the fireplace lit and she said, "That didn’t take you long."

I said, "It sure didn’t."

She looked out through the window, "Wait a minute, it’s still there!"

"No, it isn’t."

She said, "But it is still there, I can see it!"

"Not through my eyes."

You must believe this. This was in the morning. In the afternoon, a man came walking down the path in the rain to our front door.

He introduced himself; "I am the new road repair foreman up here. We brought a piece of machinery that we do not want to leave up on the road over the weekend. Could we park it down here on your place?"

"What kind of machinery is it?" I asked.

"It is earth moving machinery."

I said, "Bring it down! However, there will be a slight charge."

"What do you mean?"

"See that load of dirt?" I pointed it out to him.

"Where do you want it?" he quickly replied.

"On the other side of that wall."

"No problem," he said.

He came down and in ten minutes had moved the pile of earth-dirt to the other side of the wall, beautifully done.

When he was done, we invited him in for a drink . . .of herb tea.

As we sat in front of the fireplace, I will never forget how my wife looked out the window and said, "I see it now."

I guess there is something like that that has to happen to us. And there are things like that that do happen to us. We realize that all roads that lead to God are good. It is not happening out there, it is happening within you and within me.

© 1974 Dr. Marcus Bach

Thanks, Sharrhan -- that was lovely. On a couple levels, I can relate to it.


Sometimes when you have a real big, physical job to do - with motivation, it becomes easier.


But he should ditch that wife -- she sounds like a real pain to me.

hmmm... gotta love that husband
so faithful and prayerful and abiding and... and... and..

"dirt" - y oooops i meant "earth" y

Great story! A little faith goes a long way!

I would have moved the dirt myself.
Just sayin'.

Ha! I know what you mean, TL. I think there are so many occasions when people try to get things to happen through thought alone (like, for instance, creating optimal health) when the obvious way to do it is to make inspired choices and take action.

Case in point: I have a friend whom I haven't seen since the late 1980s. She was a gorgeous, vivacious woman and she was also very into creating her life through positive thought. In fact, she was one of the happiest, most positive people I ever met. However, she didn't believe in taking physical actions in this regard, and despite my and others' gentle proddings in that direction, she would never work out, do yoga, or change her diet. (She did dance a little.) She didn't really believe it was necessary. Her favorite foods were pizza and 'chips.' I saw a video on YouTube recently that she and a friend made, and I was shocked. She has gained at least 40 pounds and seems to have no chin now, and in all frankness she looks like a sweet little old lady, way older than her 55 years. Sad, because in 1988 she looked like Farrah Fawcett's twin sister.

So I post this story with a huge caveat: if you use your thoughts to create what you want and need in life, and your intuition tells you to take certain concrete actions, DO IT!!

Sharrhan:


[www.facebook.com]

<<if you use your thoughts to create what you want and need in life, and your intuition tells you to take certain concrete actions, DO IT!!>>

i agree one hundred percent
besides, its so much more fun coupling action with thoughts
the two were made for each other

thinking alone can be burdensome

sometimes its a lot easier taking those baby steps and feeling the high from manifesting ones thought by

MOVING!

that way not everything is contained in the head

>thinking alone can be burdensome
sometimes its a lot easier taking those baby steps and feeling the high from manifesting ones thought by
MOVING!
that way not everything is contained in the head<

So true, LaVeronique. I know that in my own experience, when I start living too much in my head I get spacey and kind of psychically out of joint, as well as physically tired.

Sharrhan:


[www.facebook.com]

living in my head is perilous to my mind

its an act of mercy for me to just be doing without thinking so much

Me too! I catch myself living in my head way too much, though, especially since I've moved away from all I knew in California to New England, where everyone is so different than everyone where I've always lived. I don't like how it depresses me, disengages me from what's going on around me, and makes me insensitive to others. NOT good! This is one of the things I'm working really hard on right now.

kwan, yabba dabba doo! So glad to see you

This story is fun. How well I know what it means to move such a pile by hand - done

it many times and often wished for a machine to come and do it especially when

weather is over 100 degrees or, as in the story, the material is wet. I know exactly

what he means by "I like to exercise, but not work!".

My suggestion to anyone who has to do it w/o machinery is to get at least one other

person to do it with you if possible, helps to have a fellow beast of burden and it

goes faster. Turn on a radio if you like.

Oh, and as for the wife, I wouldn't feel right being inside by the fire while he

does it by himself. Guys may be stronger but that doesn't mean we cant help.

Thanks for the great story and again...so glad to see you posting. I'm smiling big.

Kit

<<Oh, and as for the wife, I wouldn't feel right being inside by the fire while he
does it by himself. Guys may be stronger but that doesn't mean we cant help.>>

nawww!

i like the guy to do all the muscle work
while i assiduously arduously painstakingly diligently wash, cut and blend the green smoothies for both of us


hey its WORK too LOL

Ha! Funny how my mind kind of glossed over the old school, 'Ward and June Cleaver' sort of relationship this couple appears to have when I originally read the story. I think he was in his 80s or 90s when he wrote this; he's probably dead now. So they're of a different generation where, as my mom used to say to me when I'd ask her to help me fix my bike or repair something: "Your daddy is the one to ask about that. I don't know anything about things like that." ;-)

Sharrhan:


[www.facebook.com]