Have you ever felt defeated with no hope at all? Maybe you are going through struggles and you feel like you are being buried in the troubles of this world. You go through one problem, choose to shake it off and move on and then another problem lands right on top of you, trying to bury you once again. Well when dirt lands on top of you , you have a choice, what will you do? Listen to this little story I am going to share with you about an old dog. Once upon a time , there was an old dog named Farley. Every morning he would go for a walk through the old farm yard to keep out any varmints. This day he spotted a young rabbit and the chase was on, only to be interrupted by a great fall and a
hard landing.

“What in the world just happened?” he thought to himself. “Where am I?” He suddenly realized he had fallen into the old well. His leg was hurting and there was no way out. The only thing he could do was howl like any good ol dog could do. So he started a howling, and a howling and a howling. “ I sure am getting weary of howling , my voice is starting to go” But he kept on, for it was his only hope, but his howl was turning into the quiet faintness of the calm on a midsummer night. His howl was getting more and more faint as the hours passed, if his master did not find him soon he might never be found.

Then he heard a faint sound, “Faarrrrlley, FFFFaaarrrllleyyyyy”. He heard his master calling. He rose up in the midst of his defeat and started to howl once again, as loud as he could , over and over again. Then in the darkness of the well he heard his master above saying, “Old Farley what ya dog on did to git urself a way down there? How am I a ever gonna git you out?”

Farley was so happy to hear his master’s voice, however he did not realize the thoughts of his master. His master was old too and was thinking there was no way he could get his ol Farley out. He figured he was gonna die soon anyhow and decided it would be best to bury his old dog in that well and heck he needed to fill that old well in anyways so no other youngster would have the fate of his ol dog. He thought he was killing two birds with one stone , burying his dog and filling in the old well that should have been taken care of years ago.

So that ol’ farmer went and found his shovel, and slowly he started to scoop up one shovel full of dirt at a time, over and over again , stopping to take a breather about every fourth shovelful. At first Farley thought “What in the world is a landing on me?” , He felt the hard dirt hit him on the head and he did what any ol dog would do, shake it off. Many a times he would be by the rivers edge and dirt would a land on him and he would just shake it off and move forward. So he figured now he would do the same.

Slowly and laboriously the farmer shovelled and the dog shook it off, and little by little the well was being filled up and ol’Farley was getting closer and closer to the top. Suddenly that ol’ farmer could finally see the dirt coming to the surface and also had quite the shock when he saw ol’ Farley right on top of that dirt pile, “ Well I’ll be, what in the world? You smart ol’dog why didn’t I think of that? That farmer felt pretty darn bad once he realized he was burying his dog and then was over come with joy when finally Farley could reach the top and jump on out of that old well, sore paw and all. He was so happy to be on top of that ol dirt pile and see his master, he jumped up on his master giving him tons of doggy kisses and knocking him right over on his hyney.

The moral of this story, when life continually throws dirt upon you, keep shaking it off and moving upward. And when it seems like everyone has forsaken you and they are helping to see you buried, don’t stop to worry about it, just keep shaking off the dirt, continuing on, never giving up. And when you are so tired of praying and your voice becomes a whisper calling out to God, know that He hears you and from the moment you prayed, he has started to send the answer. Sometimes it takes a little longer for the answer to come but know this , it is on its way. Keep fighting the good fight of faith, keep believing, keep shaking off the dirt landing upon you and use that old dirt to build your way out of the defeated attitudes that want to cling to you. It is your choice to let life bury you alive or to shake it off. Make the right choice, shake it off. You can have the victory, claim it, take it, and be triumphant.