The Hole

I heard a story about a guy who fell into a hole.  Along came a doctor.  The guy in the hole cried up to him.  “Hey, can you help me get out of this hole?” The doctor took out his prescription pad and wrote out a script and threw it into the hole and walked off. 

Next a priest came by.  The guy cried out “Hey, I’m stuck in this hole, can you help me out?” The priest wrote down a prayer and threw it down to him in the hole and walked off. 

Next the guy’s best friend came by and saw him down in the hole.  He jumped down into the hole with his friend.  The guy said “Are you crazy? Now we are both stuck in here.”  His friend said, “Yeah, but I have been here before, and I know the way out.”

Okay, so cool story right. Happy ending we presume, the guy and his friend get out of the whole.  Everyone ends up happy in the end.  But, there is more to this story. 

Who are you in this story?  If you came across someone in need, what part would you play in their story?  Each person played a part.

The doctor- his answer to the problem was to cover it up with substances.  A lot of people do this.  Maybe it’s not drugs or alcohol.  Maybe it’s work, or activities, or family.  They will do anything other than dealing with the problem.  Sometimes these things are helpful to take our mind off the problem, to help us gain a little perspective on what we are facing, but we still have to face the problem.  Substances alone are never the answer.  We still have to solve the problem.

The priest- his answer to the problem was prayer. Prayer is always the best way to deal with a problem.  But, prayer alone can’t solve every problem.  In this case prayer was not the only thing the man needed.  A prayer for strength would be good, but then action doing it is what he needed.  Every situation is different.  Prayer sometimes is just the beginning of the answer.

The friend- his answer was action.  Having been in the same situation himself, he put himself back into that same situation to help his friend pull himself up.  He sacrificed of himself to help another.  His friend could have just said, “Hey I know what you need to do.” Then told him and walked off, but he didn’t.  He wanted to make sure he made it out of the situation safely.  He could have waited above and talked him through, but again, he had been through this and knew the pitfalls ahead. 

So, who are you?  When someone faces a tough situation around you, what do you do?  Do you dive in and help them with your experience?  Or, do you stay on the outer edges, give them a little nudge and hope everything works out okay in the end?

I believe we all go through things in our lives as Christians for a reason.  Somewhere later on in life, we are going to come across a friend in a hole and we can say “Hey, I’ve been here before and I know the way out.”