Inspiration to be found in miners' plight
"ESTAMOS bien en el refugio los 33", translated means "All 33 of us in the shelter are ok!"
This was the amazing message beamed out across news networks on August 22.
It brought gladness beyond description to the loved ones of the trapped miners two weeks after the roof had collapsed where they were working in the San Jose gold and copper mine, Chile.
The hope was that they had reached the space designated as a refuge should such a disaster occur, and reached it they had!
Their survival was due to two things – the small food rations which they were disciplined in distributing, and the hope that they would be located, having arrived in the "shelter". They were in the right place to be found.
We have since learned their journey back home may take four months. A delicate drilling task is underway to reach them, and we pray for them and their rescuers.
They will be fed but must not gain so much weight that they will not fit into the shaft being prepared.
They must maintain not only good physical health but also good mental health. Their families too have a long and emotional wait. Thank God for those who had the presence of mind to create such a shelter.
There is no magic wand for these men. They have weeks and weeks of waiting ahead. They will not waken and all of a sudden be breathing fresh air and seeing daylight. What they now require is a different vision – the vision that sees beyond the negative and the hostile. They even have to muster enthusiasm.
In learning of these miners and watching their faces in the cloudy film footage, what struck my heart was how they were inspiring hope in their loved ones. Smiles. Thumbs up. "I am ok".
"I am safe". "I am well'. "I love you."
It is often good men and women who face troubles and unimaginable difficulties that keep the rest of us right. Somehow in their struggle they have found that small shelter, that place which is the habitat of hope.
There are two instructions on the doorway of the shelter of hope - on the inside it says "perseverance" and on the outside it says "encouragement".
The tasks are quite different and require distinct things from us. Those of us outside the shelter have the task of not leaving those inside in the lurch.
We are not to give up on them. We are not to be discouraged that their perseverance won't pay off. We are to drill that survival shaft no matter how much it requires of our time and talents. We are to let go of lesser things and concentrate on what really matters.
In fact, it means that we are to oppose traditionalism! By that I mean we are to resist an attitude that withstands change, adaptation and alteration.
An attitude that is blindly enforced and suspicious of anything new and up to date. This is something altogether different from tradition.
Tradition gives us deep roots and a solid network of reliable truths which enable us to be encouragers.
It instils in us the desire to look beyond the letter of the law and obey the spirit of the law. The Chile rescue is just one example of such a task. The engineers have to find a new way through while depending upon the skills they have already honed.
In this province we have our own future to secure. It includes withstanding the self-appointed wing-clippers who would rather we all suffocate in the rubble of a blocked mine-shaft than reach for the skies.
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Weather for Belfast
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 12 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 7 mph
Wind direction: South east
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Temperature: 12 C to 22 C
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