reach

watching lord of the rings the other day, sam and frodo are at the edge of the cliff and frodo has just fallen and is barely hanging to the rocky edge...sam is yelling to him to give him his hand so he can pull him up but frodo is exhausted, has lost the ring, has been through extreme hardship and is so hopeless that he can't seem to muster the strength to reach out and fight for his own life. It doesn't seem worth it anymore...the lava and fire below seem easier....easier to let himself fall and be done with everything.

but sam keeps calling to him...don't let go!.....give me your hand!.....and with tears in his eyes he yells to frodo, REACH! and frodo finally looks into the face of his true friend, the one who has been there through it all, has helped him, saved him from danger, risked everything for him because he simply loves him and frodo finds hope in sam's eyes. frodo stops looking down at the easy way out and looks up....and he reaches up with all that he has left inside of him and sam is there and grasps his hand and pulls him up.
*****

The Lord is calling to us to reach out and take his hand...to risk the fall and trust that he will be there to pull us up over that cliff to safety. He calls to us to give us hope that all is not lost, that better days are ahead and that we can go on. He yells to us to not let go, to keep fighting, to gather our strength and face the new day.

and we can because it is HE who calls to us. it is HE who has been there all along, helping us, carrying us, saving us, fighting for us!

we can because it isn't about trusting ourselves, relying on our own strength to get us through...

it's about trusting Him and we can do that...

because He is reaching out to us

waiting for us to reach out to Him.