I was walking in the woods during the darkness of the night. Unmindful of the danger around me, I was just heading straight to the unknown path before me. I was enjoying the serenity of my surroundings. Though it was dark I was sinking myself into the hushed swaying of the leaves and the mild sounds of nearby animals. Then without warning, I felt my feet slid as it failed to step on the dirt of the grounds because I realized, there was no ground to step on to! Amidst the darkness I did not see that my path was heading straight to a cliff and it was too late to go back. I was on my way down; screaming and falling into the rocks that I somehow knew would greet my whole body as I plunge into the ravine.
But with divine intervention I felt my hands suddenly reach out and I was able to grab on to a protruding tree branch. A sigh of relief escaped from my already white and parched lips. Thank God, I wasn’t broken into pieces yet. My body was still whole though bruised and blue from all that friction between my body and the rock as it slammed together from the fall. With all the strength I could muster, I hang on for dear life to that one tree branch. Praying fervently, “Save me from this pit, my Lord.” It was scary and the silence in the dark woods was now deafening. I was now way far and below from the garden-like surrounding I was threading on a few minutes back. Fatigue took over and sweat-drenched as I am, suddenly I heard a voice in my head saying “Let go, my child.”
Though bruised and blue, I still had my wits around me and my reasoning was screaming letting go will just hurt me more. I could fall and hit the rocks and instantaneously say goodbye to the world. So with firm conviction, I told myself that I could do it, I could hang on to this branch and wait until morning. Surely someone will see me then, or so I hope…
Just when I thought I couldn’t hold on anymore, the dawn breaks and the sun light seeps through the clouds to shed light to where I was. I then gathered the remaining courage in my body and with eyes closed; I slowly moved my head downwards so I could see how far it was still from the grounds below. Then gradually I opened your eyes and saw to my astounding amazement, the distance between my hanging feet and the grounds below was just a mere one foot away…
My body then somewhat moved on its own and I just felt my blood-drained hands letting go of that tree branch. I fell and my body hit the ground and I realized – If only I let go in the middle of the night, I could have saved my arms from the numbness it now feels after the torture it went through carrying my weight, hanging on for dear life.
If only I trusted and surrendered when I heard the small voice saying, “Let go, my child…”
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”
- Proverbs 3:5-6
Sometimes in our stubbornness and confidence in ourselves we chose to hang on to something even if in the process we are actually torturing ourselves. We cry out in anguish to God, begging for his compassionate mercy to help us out of our predicament. But in most cases, we hardly hear that still voice saying to let go. Or even if we did hear it, we still rely on our own reasoning and understanding and we refuse to surrender. We choose to hold on and rely with our own selves but later on we realize if we had let go the moment He told us to, then we could have saved ourselves from further pain.
Blind Trust. Pure Obedience. Sheer Surrender. That’s all it takes to follow God. Easy? Not in the slightest! It is hard, if not, even impossible...
Father God, help me to surrender totally to you...
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