Coming Out

This phrase has been tested over the recent years. Our society has used it to say that someone is revealing something that perhaps has been hidden for some time. Confessions, lifestyles, confessions about lifestyles, thoughts, attitudes, and deep dark secrets are things that help us "come out." I stayed up late last night to witness with the world a coming out. Actually it was a coming out that had been worked on and planned for many days. Several people were involved as well as many different governmental agencies. Lots of professional people and blue collar workers came together so that this coming out could happen. In fact, in order to come out, one decided that he would have to go in and then stay for a while and then come out himself. Thirty-three Chilean miners had been trapped for 69 days. Dark, dusty, dungeon-like. They were held captive in a gloomy place that seemed hopeless and full of void. As I celebrated last night when the first miner was rescued from that dark hole, I cried as those who loved him, a son and a wife, joyfully cried when he was free from the captivity of darkness. When the 10th miner was rescued this morning and came out of that rescue capsule, I watched again with tears in my eyes as the scenario was the same as the first except the fact that this miner fell to his knees and thanked God for the privilege of seeing light, breathing fresh air, and being set free from captivity. Then I realized the parallels to my life. I have no clue what it is like to have been in captivity for 69 days, wondering if I was going to be rescued or set free. I have no clue what it is like to experience darkness for days upon days and to hear only the breathing and conversations of those with whom I shared such an ordeal. I have no clue what it would mean to be lifted out of such darkness into bright beaming light and hearing the sounds of those that love me welcome me home. No, I may not have a clue about those things. However, I do know what it means to be set free from a life of bondage and being held captive by my own sinfulness and shame. I know what it means to have a relationship with the One that decided before I was ever born to go into the dark and gloomy place to prepare for me a rescue capsule that would deliver me from the pit of darkness and bring me into Light. While NASA helped design the rescue capsule of durable metals, wheels, and teflon, God designed my rescue capsule out of rugged wood, three nails, and a hill called Calvary. By the way, coming out indicates that you are going into something else. The miners had to come out by doing something unconventional, getting in that strangely made rescue capsule. Hopefully, they will go on to a life that could be filled with thankfulness and appreciation being set free. Maybe it is time that I do the same. What about you?