In our own rescue we form a heart for rescuing others

​I've learned two major things from being in the pits of my life. One, you don't rise from your pits alone. And two, neither will anyone else.

There is a story in the bible that tells us the prophet Jeremiah was thrown into a cistern. The cistern was full of mud, and Jeremiah was certain to sink to his death.

But there was a man named Ebed-Melek. He was a slave forced into service to the king. He was an outcast, an unlikely hero, and really, in so many ways, he was in the pits of his own life.

It was in those pits, though, that he had access to the king.

When Ebed-Melek heard about Jeremiah's plight, he went to the king and pleaded for the chance to rescue Jeremiah. The king granted him this opportunity.

I wonder what Jeremiah thought, what Jeremiah felt, when he was pulled from that cistern with a rope and realized it was an Ebed-Melek, a no one in the grand scheme of that culture, who was holding the other end of that rope.

Actually, I guess I don't wonder much about that.

The last several years, I have been steadily rising from one of the deepest darkest pits of my life. And time and time again, an Ebed-Melek has shown up with a rope to support that rise.

Unexpected friends lending an ear. Unexpected friends lending their resources. Unexpected friends simply reaching out to check up on me. Time and time again, from unexpected places, Ebed-Melek has shown up.

It has certainly made me thankful for the rope, but maybe even more, it has left me constantly wondering, asking myself, who else needs a rope? Who else needs pulled from the sinking mud of their lives, because certainly I'm not the only one prone to sinking.

In the emotions of our own pits we can get to thinking we don't have anything to contribute to the rescue of another. But what did Ebed-Melek have?

All he had was courage.

The courage to speak up on the behalf of another. The courage to advocate for another. The courage to see a wrong and know it would be an even greater wrong to see it and not use all resources he DID have to do something about it.

It was in the deep pits Ebed-Melek had faced in his own life where he came to be able to feel the current pit of Jeremiah's life. In that feeling he - and we - get to decide, do I feel sorry for my own pit, or do I go to work trying to rescue someone else from theirs?

Most days, I find myself trying to speak encouragement into the pits of others. I find myself trying to lower ropes where I can. I find myself wanting to scream with urgency, that far far more of us are living in pits than people often realize.

My pits in life have left me deeply longing for the day when we will all join hands on the same rope. When we will all come to realize that life is really one giant rescue operation. A rescue operation that requires us all to rise from our own pits and reach into the depths of another.

I long for the day when we will stop judging people for their pits, blaming people for their pits, ignoring people in their pits, throwing people into pits; I long for the day we'll stop doing all of that and start grabbing ropes.

I long for the day that in addition to praying for God's rescue, we will be God's rope in the rescue. God never left Jeremiah in the pit. Ebed-Melek was ultimately how Jeremiah came to be sure of that.

Someone is in a pit today. Help them come to know God has not left them.

Lower them a rope.