Saturday, August 28, 2010

Dear God,

The trapped miners have a story to tell of faith, trust, hope, courage, and love. Sheltered two miles below the surface in a small space sharing the barest essentials to stay alive, they are already demonstrating what life is at the bottom and what it means to rise in faith. Every time I think about them, I feel claustrophobic. Yet, what I read about them challenges me to rethink my own small spaces and how you enlarge the resilence of the human soul to meet the demands of difficult situations.

What WE know is that their own business owners have abandoned them, they will remain in their coffin for at least two more months, and they will not be paid during the time of their entombment. What THEY know is that they need you and each other, help is on the way and working together will keep them alive until they are rescued.

I remember seeing a blackened picture of Jesus in a food line with other hungry souls. I recall reading the story about three men in a hot furnace and a fourth walking around. I have heard countless stories of angel appearances at accident scenes and visions of the holy in extreme situations. Who is to discount the 34th person in the bowels of the earth bringing peace and calm to men unable to dig their way out to freedom?

Teach us
to trust you,
O God;
remind us
to turn
to you
in every situation.
Help us
to see
what others
cannot see.
Challenge us
to move beyond
the visible
to the invisible
where faith
awaits us.
Show us
the way
not out
of our dilemmas
but into
the deep
where you appear
to guide us.
Make your
way plain
so that
we may be
a witness
to the
waiting world.

Love, Andrea