Isaiah 59:1: Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear.
I’d like to tell you a story about a man named ‘Mr. Self-Assured’. He was a strong, confident, and prideful man, and he loved hiking. One day he had been on a trail that was fairly uneventful – comparatively flat terrain, not too many obstacles, and had a sprinkling of wildlife. He came upon a fork in the trail, and there was a sign by the other trail called “Temptation”. As he looked down the alternate route, he saw that trail had lush greenery, he heard more and different sounds of wildlife, and there was even a breeze blowing a fragrant scent his way. He had never been on this trail, but the lure to check it out was too great. He thought to himself, “I can handle this – if something goes wrong, I can always go back to the other trail.” So he proceeded down the trail called “Temptation”.
For awhile, the trail was all he hoped it would be – his senses were fully stimulated by the sights and sounds. However, as he continued down the path, a fog bank began to build. Mr. Self-Assured had walked in fog before, so he proceeded down the path thinking to himself, “I can handle this”. As the fog bank began to thicken, he noticed the path was beginning to head down – to descend, but that didn’t slow down Mr. Self-Assured. With the fog billowing up now to the point he could barely see in front of him, he stumbled over something and began to fall down a hill. The darkness of the fog prevented him from finding something to stop, or even slow, his falling. The rate of his descent picked up as he bounced and tumbled for what seemed an eternity. With a thud, he finally hit bottom.
Battered, bruised, and unable to see anything through the fog, Mr. Self-Assured began to have thoughts that would betray his namesake. He was suddenly unsure of what he was to do. He was wounded. He was lost. He was alone. He was beginning to feel something he hadn’t felt in a long time – fear and helplessness. As those emotions swelled up in him, he unexpectedly cried out, “Help!” This stunned Mr. Self-Assured, “Where did that come from?” he wondered. Notably, no one replied to his cry, so several minutes went by, and the realization of his helplessness gripped him again. An outburst of “Help” came again, but this time it was followed with the words that were the ultimate betrayal to his persona, “I can’t handle this!”
Immediately, from above him a light and a shadow through the light began to appear through the fog. He couldn’t make out what it was, but what ever it was kept getting bigger as it got closer. Finally, what came down from the fog was the largest hand he had ever seen – it was bigger than him. Mr. Self-Assured was terrified and recoiled. He then heard a low thunder-like voice say, “Don’t be afraid.”
“Who are you?” asked, Mr. Self-Assured – his voice quivering giving evidence to his disobedience to the hand’s command.
“I am Savior” the hand replied.
“How did you get here?” Mr. Self-Assured inquired.
“I’ve always been here,” Savior replied.
Mr. Self-Assured looked mystified at that statement and proclaimed, “I’ve never seen you or knew about you.”
“How could you? You never asked before now.” Before giving Mr. Self-Assured a chance to respond to that comment, Savior asked, “What happened?”
“I was on a path and came across a fork in the trail. The other trail looked better than the one I was on, so I chose to go down the Temptation Path. It was great for a short period of time, but then things started going wrong, and I ended up falling a long way down and eventually landed here.”
“I’ve seen this happen a lot.” Savior sorrowfully stated. “What do you need?”
“I can’t get out of this on my own – I need help.” Mr. Self-Assured humbly admitted.
“Step into my hand,” Savior said as it opened up.
With nowhere else to turn, Mr. Self-Assured stepped into Savior’s hand, and he immediately began to feel himself being lifted up from the pit that he was in. “How long is your arm?” he asked.
“Long enough to save you, Mr. Self-Assured.”
Just hearing Savior call him by his name embarrassed him – and not just a little. Moreover, as his ascent through the fog in the Savior’s hand continued, each moment made him realize how far down he was and how high up Savior must be – how long his arm must be to save him. His appreciation of the immensity and strength of Savior grew with each second he spent in His hand. In addition, he noticed the bumps and bruises he incurred during his fall begin to heal. Finally, Mr. Self-Assured felt an overwhelming comfort and sense of protection in Savior’s hand as time passed.
Finally, Savior brought him out of the fog and the pit, and put him on another path. The hand disappeared. He looked down that path and noticed it was narrow and straight. However, there was another fork in the trail, but it was difficult to see what was down that path. Normally, Mr. Self-Assured would know what to do and would just charge down the path of his choice. He began to do just that but abruptly stopped, looked up, and asked, “Which way should I go, Savior?”
The hand reappeared from above – extended out to him, and Savior gently said to Mr. Self-Assured, “Let’s begin with changing your name. How does ‘Savior-Assured’ sound?”
“That sounds better, thank you,” he humbly replied.
“Good – now follow me.”
So the newly named ‘Savior Assured’ took the hand that belonged to the long arm of the Lord that saved him and heard his cry for help and began walking with him down the straight and narrow path – and it was good.