TRAPPED

Eldon, an elderly couple, a widow and I chatted as we descended from the 14th floor on our way to the banquet. Suddenly the elevator lurched and we heard what sounded like slipping chains or misaligned gears and we came to a stop somewhere just below the 6th floor. If the cables holding us broke I figured we had about a 7-story fall and who knows what injuries we might sustain. The notion of death crossed my mind and I thought how weird and unforeseen it would be to die with my great one-star-Lord-loving boss in a hotel elevator!
I think we both had the same idea to remain calm and reassure the other descenders. Since I stood next to the intercom, I buzzed the front desk and let them know of our plight. Repeatedly the receptionist spoke to us and asked if we were okay assuring us that help was just five minutes away. I thought, “Yeah right! Help never comes that fast.” For forty minutes we were trapped. Finally, the cables pulled us up to the eleventh floor where we made a happy exit and walked into the adjacent compartment.
MeditationEcclesiastes 9:12—Moreover, no man knows when his hour will come: As fish are caught in a cruel net, or birds are taken in a snare, so men are trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly upon them.All of humanity is ensnared by sin. But unlike our container on cables built to rise and fall, when the elevator of life plummets the result is always death. Most of us have no idea when or how we will die. But what matters is not so much the when, or the how, but the what. What are we dying into—eternal life with God or eternal separation from Him? It felt good to stand in that elevator knowing that hope cannot be trapped. Faith is the awareness that a high-speed plunge is inconsequential when you know the Creator. Faith is the confidence that fear is mastered by life that matters. Faith is the calmness that confinement is no big deal. I wonder what was going through the minds of the other three people. I wish now that I had shared my Savior while I had a captive audience. And the next time I push the lobby button, I’ll be thinking as the doors close, “what a lift we have in Jesus!”

InspirationMan is the only kind of varmint sets his own trap, baits it, then steps in it.—John Steinbeck