Minor Miner Problem

"Miners in a "Godforsaken" cave." That's what the reporter said from my TV set tonight.

I know I'm not paid anywhere near what Bill Weir is to examine the situation in Chile so I already have a "credibility gap" in saying this but...I BEG TO DIFFER, MR. WEIR.

Almost everyone I know has found himself* in a pit so deep he wasn't sure he would be able to claw his way out. Sure, these pits are proverbial, but they can feel just as dark, damp, gruesome, and unforgiving as a real half-mile underground mine.

Whether you've dealt with depression, addiction, loss, bullying, peer pressure, or the latest and greatest reason to feel helpless, you are never. NEVER. In a Godforsaken place.

To say that your situation in life is so helpless that God has walked away from you and stopped providing is malarkey. Even the bleakest physical places people find themselves, jail cells or deep mines or mental hospitals, aren't forsaken because God is incapable of leaving His own in a spot from which there isn't the chance to commune with Him.**

Yet, we tend to forget that we have the responsibility to cry out to Him! And we lose our focus, just like the miners undoubtedly did at times. We expect every experience, location, and emotion to be from the "mountaintop" when, in fact, most of our lives are spent in the valley, learning to appreciate the mountaintop experiences when they do come.

Can you even imagine the high each of those miners was on when they were reunited with their loved ones?*** It was the exact opposite of the depressed state they had experienced for over two months in that pit.

But, without the pit, do you truly think they could have felt such joy? Without the weeks of darkness, could they experience and appreciate the strength and beauty of the sun? Or the son?

I'm not comfortable giving "hero" status to any of the men in this situation. This was a group effort based on a basic need to survive. Every miner had a small part in upholding this community of unwilling prisoners. And God saw fit to place among them everything they needed, including one who had studied medicine, one who was a great leader, one who was inspirational, and another who was an evangelist. Even if they hadn't been provided food and water and TV, for crumb sake, they were surrounded by a group of amazing men and a God who was on their side!

I have no doubt the Devil saw this as his playground. I'm sure he was completely unmerciful when it came to playing tricks in the minds of all those miners. I'm sure there were days when they thought they would surely die in that Hell because God was nowhere to be found.

But, I have news for you, Mr. Devilboy: you LOST. 33 to zip. Nice try but no dice. You had 69 days to do your work and you failed.

And God? He had those same 69 precious days with those men, days where they were captive with the opportunity to draw close to one another and to Him. To overcome their fear and hunger and pain and just sit in the dark and call on His name.

I really hope, when the stories of these men come out as a book and a movie, that this experience will reveal the light of God to our broken world. After all, if we have to assign a hero to this situation, credit goes to Him. There is no other as couragous or able or admirable or noble as He.

In, of all places, a lightless, foreboding, foul location that we can now officially say WASN'T Godforsaken.


*Or herself.

**And, even if you don't claim Him as your own, He STILL claims YOU as His own!

***Save the one blooming idiot whose wife left the grounds because his mistress showed up? Buddy, there's a little country song that describes the next few months of your life: D.I.V.O.R.C.E.