SHIPWRECK AND STRANDED
A man was shipwrecked on an uninhabited island. He painstakingly built a little hut for protection and a place to keep the few items he had salvaged from the wreck. He prayed fervently for his rescue, scanning the horizon for a ship, but NOTHING. For weeks he lived under the hot sun and the cold nights.
Then one day, when he returned from a search for food, he was terrified to find that his little hut was in flames. He was crushed by the disaster. The few possessions he had were now gone up in smoke. That night, he slept in the open, by the ashes.
Early the next morning he awoke to find a ship anchored off the island. The captain who came to rescue him said, "We saw your smoke signal, and we came."
The man thought all was destroyed and realised that what he let go become the instrument of blessing. God seemed so distant but He was working on both ends - to bring the ship of rescue near at just the right time, and to reduce the man to nothing in order to bring him to his knees.