03 Apr Grab a hold of faith
The mud squished between each finger as he clawed toward more nothingness. All visible light had fled long ago. Only darkness lingered now, the air heavy with the screeching sounds of sadness. Demons cackled and clamored. The air all around him carried moans of lifeless bodies waited to die.
Misery lived here. Torment and misery.
More mud squished as fingers fought toward the great expanse.
It had to be somewhere. Something. Anything.
The pit consumed all its victims. Lost in darkness and sin, life having thoroughly escaped these weary, broken, and downtrodden souls, in each moment they waited for the heavy hand of death to snatch them up. Only misery endured as darkness expanded with every passing moment. As life turned to death, death did not take shape. Within every hour did the clenched fists of hopelessness beat their way down the length of each battered body.
Finger by finger he fought his way forward. He knew at one point that he’d been taught the way, but his mind was so confused in this place. His heart had become numb and calloused over. His conscience had become seared, and his hope was all but lost. And yet an inkling of something. A light where there was none. Only a glimmer in the mind and a whisper in the night.
His fingers dug deep into the muck and he screamed. Long and hard against a sea of heaviness and despair, and yet still he cried with heart and soul. Moment by moment passed, and then he waited longer. Nothing.
His shattered heart trudged through memories of broken relationships and heavy turmoil. Confusion and helplessness overwhelmed him. An ocean of wails encompassed him round about as the darkness cut him to the bone. The heavy chains of sin drug him further down into the sludge of thick bitterness.
And yet knew no way but forward. “Help me.” He trudged. Moment by empty moment. Thick darkness.
JESUS.
In nothing but a wisp of air the thought came and was gone again, and before he had captured it, it almost vanished completely. And yet JESUS. Memories flashed and faded in sudden bursts of light within his mind. His heart pounded to the rhythm of remorse as each rebellious sin played like a twisted drama through his failing thoughts. How he had forgotten His dad’s sermons on Sunday mornings and yet here they were a symphony of miraculous intervention coming to life within his soul.
JESUS. His sacrifice. He remembered!
He screamed again into the thick of night but this time with the name of Jesus Christ upon his lips. Time and again he cried out for salvation. Each cry grew more desperate and then sunk him deeper into misery. Over and again he cried, again and again and again.
With heavy sobs of repentance he cried. Pain in his heart transformed to newness of life.
“Forgive me Jesus. Forgive me. I surrender. Forgive me.”
With one final gasp he collapsed in surrender as an array of light danced across the darkness. A torch flickered in shadowy waves across the lengths of the pit walls as faces formed above in the light of flame and fire.
“We are here to set you free! Grab a hold of faith, and we will pull you up!”
Big strands of crystalline faith and sparkling fire fell like a long rope down into the pit. He grabbed onto faith, and it immediately penetrated his heart. Foot by foot he was pulled from the depths of the pit. Once at the top, the faces of battle-hardened soldiers arrayed for war greeted him with big smiles and warm hugs. The crystalline strand of faith quickly receded into the leader’s shield as he stepped forward.
“We’ve been marching three days through thick darkness and deep in enemy territory to get here to you. The battle has been tense. The enemy has completely taken over this area, but praise The Lord you’ve been set free!”
“Wait!” The man stared at each smiling face in disbelief. “How’d you know I was here? How to find me?”
The leader stepped forward as a great torch of fire raged to life. Flames tore through the night sky as the word “Christ” stood unmoving between each ribbon and tongue.
“The King sent us. He said you’d be ready.”