On Faith, Captivity and Breakthrough

If ever there was a story about faith, we saw it this week.
After being trapped for 69 days more than 2300 feet underground in a mine, we saw 33 Chilean miners brought to safety.
When the mishap was first reported in August, stating that the miners were all alive, joy was tempered with somber reality when experts said they might not be able to be rescued until Christmas. When they were found to be alive, they had already been trapped in the mine for 17 days.
My heart sank. How in the world would these guys be able to survive?
The painstaking rescue process began, with these 33 men trapped in a space about the size of an average living room.
Reports were issued daily on the drilling efforts that would get them out. Christmas seemed so far away…
And then last week the word came that the drilling had broken through to the men. Rescue efforts were working; with God’s help, they’d be able to lift those men to safety by week’s end.
I sat in awe as I saw that capsule release the first miner, then another, then another. And what struck me most was that all of them gave all the credit for their rescue to God.
Even down in the mine, the messages they sent up was that God was, God is …good.
That would be crazy faith.
The situation made me glad I believe in God, glad that about all I have is faith. Faith works in the darkest, deepest places of our lives. This Chilean mining episode proves that.
The situation also showed that breakthrough is often slow and deliberate, and rescue slow as well. Breakthrough and rescue require faith, but also some adjustments on our part. Once there is breakthrough and rescue, we are not the same.
These miners and their families will soon be hit with that reality.
But what I keep going back to is how these guys kept God front and center, though they were literally near the center of the earth. They kept faith though they were often cold and sometimes, were in knee-deep water, some reports have said.
What a time to show God that their faith was real. It was as though they were living out Job’s statement, “Yet, though he slay me, yet will I believe in him.”
In a world and society where cynics and skeptics doubt God’s presence, and where religious fanatics and hypocrites cast God and how God works in an unfavorable light, it was good to see people standing on the promises of Jesus, the presence of Jesus, and the power of Jesus.
Now, as their breakthrough has come, I, for one, will pray that their lives increase in faith as they remember how God kept them down in that mine…so they wouldn’t let go!