The Deep Dark Pit…

Yesterday I was musing on the grand prix, re-tyring and pit stops…

Pit: ‘A hole in the ground’.

I remember Bible stories: Joseph and Jeremiah thrown into a pit and left abandoned.

Animals used to fight in pits… Dogs trained to fight in pits were pit-bull terriers; cock-fighting took place in pits – hence the restricted pilot compartment in an aircraft is the cockpit…

Many of us find ourselves in a pit at some time in our lives. It’s a dark and lonely place; there’s Joseph’s abandonment or the animals’ impending fight to the death. There’s no apparent relief or escape.

For some its caused by a broken relationship, bereavement, addiction, bankruptcy, depression, broken promises…

I recall the difference between sympathy and empathy: Sympathy sees someone in a pit; she stands at the top of the pit and feel sorry for their darkness and loneliness. Empathy sees someone in a pit; she gets into the pit and shares their darkness and loneliness…

In our pit we need that empathy… a pit-sharer.

For every pit there is an exit. Sometimes we just need to find it.

Last week my friend Cat wrote:

‘I have been clean from a chronic addiction to heroin for over 13 years. In these past few years, many of the people I associated with, had friendships with and used drugs with have died, young, too young. Many of them have died under horrific circumstances; murdered, overdosed, suicide. That could so easily have been me. My sobriety and recovery are a gift, a privilege, that many people never receive.’

Sadly some of Cat’s friends didn’t find their pit-exit…

Musing… David wrote of his God: ‘He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire, and set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand…’ (Psalm 40:2)

David and Cat found the exit with their God, climbing from the slimy pit to the firm rock…