How do you save someone who is lost in the dark?

Someone groans in the darkness. Someone cries endlessly and writhes in terrible pain. Someone wants to find her way out of the pit she’s sunk into, but she’s frozen in fear and does not know the way. How do you save her? How do you bring her into the light? Shall you shout unto her and tell her she’s got to get up and try to find her way out? Shall you direct her shaking knees to go to the left, to the right, make a u-turn, crawl under, jump, tread the narrow and winding path that lies before her?

Shall you encourage her how wonderful it is to bask in the light? Or shall you tell her stories of people who made it through the difficult path she’s going through?

Shall you tell her to group with the hopeless man nearby? Shall you tell them to lead each other out of the pit they’re both in?

You must have guessed it. There is no other way but to go into the darkness where she is and lead her back into the light!

No, it’s not an easy thing, never will be. But if we are to truly desire to share the happiness we have where we are, we must be willing to leave it for a while so we can accompany those who do not know their way.

Are they in poverty? Then you must be willing to eat the bread of the poor. Are they in prison? Then you must be willing to sleep where homeless men dwell. Are they weeping? Then you must be willing to have your heart broken, so you may understand, and so you may not judge where their tears are coming from.

But make certain also that you bring enough light with you; otherwise, you will both be stranded in the darkness.

Bring as much light as you can, as much joy in your heart as you can possibly save. For it will usually be a long journey, and you do not want your light to be swallowed up by the deep darkness that will surround you.

Be prepared for opposition, especially from the one you’re trying to help. Change is never an easy thing, and fear is probably the greatest enemy to overcome.

Keep the vision of your home always fresh upon your memory. Do not forget who you are, where you came from, and for what you have set forth to accomplish. Otherwise, the people around you, who do not know of it may convince you that the darkness you see is all that’s ever existed.

Such is the way to rescue someone who is lost, and such is the way each and every one of us have all been saved.

For God Himself stripped His Glory and Divinity, becoming flesh and man like us, that He may bring upon this dark and lonely world an inextinguishable flame of hope, and life beyond everything we’ve ever hoped to have.

I have never heard of any other God who would do the same so He can save His people, who would do the only thing possible to bring them all into the Light, which they do not know.

And yet that was what He did. He knew hunger for us. He knew how it was to be tempted. He laughed, He got angry, He wept. He was judged, and mocked and betrayed. He knew how it was like to be deserted by all of His friends in His darkest and most painful hour. He even knew how it was like to die. He who is Life itself, has hung upon the cross until His very last breath had been taken away from Him.

All these He did that we may understand and believe, and that we may know what we should pray for. Heaven is so far above us that we could not possibly figure it out no matter how hard we try. We needed to witness the truth right before our very eyes. We needed to be healed so we may know wholeness. We needed to be truly loved so we can give true love away.

How do you save someone who’s lost in the dark? Take a very good look at the cross today, you may just realize what it really takes.

This article was was written by Jocelyn Soriano at http://itakeoffthemask.com You are free to republish this post in your website or email as long as proper recognition is given to the author and a link back to the site ITAKEOFFTHEMASK.COM is provided.

Check Jocelyn's books:

"Of Waves and Butterflies: Poems on Grief", "Mend My Broken Heart", "Questions to God", "To Love an Invisible God", "Defending My Catholic Faith", and more - click here.

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