The 34th Miner

They were in the blackest hole... the deepest pit.. 5 miles underground.. they werent exactly alone.. but the darkness of a pit has no color, or fresh air.. or sound... only silence except for a shifting rock... a terror to the anxious..

their cries went unheard.. help... help... the fear of being forgotten must have engulfed the 33 Chilean men for 17 lonnggg days.. and then... a note... "we are fine".. gave the world hope... and an unattractive, bulky, loud machine.. arrived on scene... that would 52 days later...stop the world in their tracks... as we all watched... a beautiful rescue...

Many of us have been trapped in a "pit" for much longer than 69 days.. we've been lost in the consuming darkness for years... we have felt as if we were alone... 5 miles underground.. and we could scream at the top of our lungs... and never reach the sound waves of God's ears... we have felt abandoned... hungry.. terrified.. and with each step we have taken... a rock shifts... and we wonder... if we will make it through one more day...

we have been waiting for signs... listening for machines.. scribbling notes of SOS as we have turned to alternative and negative means to swallow our pain... they numb us but in waking... we see the same black walls.. the chill of the life we have led.. and we burn with sorrow.. because life is not easy...

we are left with memories of the days we ran through green pastures... caught lightning bugs.. swam in a small lake... played in the woods... sat with our grandparents listening to the crickets.. and we wonder.. how we fell so hard.. so deep in such a swallowing pit...

what we must realize is that our real "pit" is just a pile.. of all our regrets... which in life.. we will all face... but like the 33 miners... we need to have faith... hope.. and belive in the impossible... if man's machines can lift 33 men from the "deep".. our God... who is greater than any drill... can also ravage the rock hard earth... and deliver us from entrapment...

The most amazing thing the miners said upon rescue was that there was a 34th miner... the entire time... down in the middle of the pit with them... that was God... this is what we have forgotten... that we were never really alone at all... we just lost our hope... our faith.. our way... we became bitter... and gave up... but if we open our hearts... and cry out to God... we will stop the world in their tracks... as all those around us.. will watch.. yet another.. beautiful rescue................