Trapped, and no way to run. In frustration, I scream and strain against the ropes holding me down, but to no avail. Panting, I look up at the rope dangling just within reach, that is, if I could reach out. Following the rope with my eyes, I glimpse daylight from a hole in the roof. Lowering my eyes, I look at the water that is filling the dark room. Yelling again, I throw my weight against the ropes, trying to grab the lifeline just above my upturned face. Some of the ropes begin to pop, and then a great snap fills the air, then another, the ropes are beginning to break. My heart filling with a new hope, I push even more and more ropes snap. Freed from those ropes, I stand up a little farther, closer to the rope to get out.

Suddenly a large crash rebounds through the closed room, followed by the clinking of a chain. Startled, I collapse, reeling from the blow. I look around, and a chain is now keeping me down. As I sit in the water, despair replacing the hope I had, the broken ropes fuse back together, like they never broke. Tears filling my eyes, I cry out in desperation to God. As the echoes of my voice die away, a breeze stirs the surface of the water, and I can just hear, or think I hear, a voice whisper, “Let go.” I scream in frustration, “No!!! Never! Why? No!!!” Sobbing I begin to plead, “No Lord, this is not the way You are supposed to do this! You’re supposed to save me with a miraculous life-changing event! One that causes these ropes to break! I created them strand-by-strand with my own hands; I would never let them go! Why?!? Save me Lord! Don’t make me let go! Take them away from me!” With that, I collapse into the ever-rising water.

Sobbing uncontrollably, I look down at the ropes and chains holding me down. Looking closely, each rope and chain has something written on it. Looking closer at one of the ropes, I see a single word, pride. Curious, I begin looking at the other ropes. Each one has a word on it, words like jealousy, idolatry, love, friendships, selfishness, lust, greed, over-confidence, excuses. Shocked, I realize that the countless cords all have similar words on them. Following the bindings to the floor, they are attached to a single bracket in the floor, labeled sin. Following the cords the other way, expecting to see them wrapped around a portion of my body, I realize they are not tied to me. Instead, every single one of them is being clenched in my hand.

Realization floods through me; all I have to do is let go. With a slight grin, I stand up, the rope dangling from the ceiling inches from my face. On it are two words, Jesus Christ. Suddenly I laugh and open my hands and the ropes and chains fall into the rising water with a splash. I grab onto the rope, still laughing. The instant my fingers close on the rope, the rope rises, pulling me out of the water and darkness, and into the light.

//Bring it World
-Brian Purkiss

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