John Duffy

Of course, we are concerned for the faraway boys in the cave in Thailand and pray for their full rescue.

We do not just feel for them, we feel with them. Though we are not in a cave under a mountain, is not our plight in life well pictured in theirs?

Lost in DarknessThose who dwelt in a land of deep darkness….

….. on them has light shone

After nine days in the darkness, there was a shining beam, a face, a voice…

Then they know they are not forgotten,

They get a bit of their story back, finding out what day it is, for in the cave they could not know night from day.

Not lost, but found…

Found by people who come through dark waters and tight tunnels to be with them…

Found but still in the cave…

Found but not yet rescued and restored…

Waters of DeathBlocked by waters, held back till they learn to swim…and dive?…

Even then, could they get through the narrow stretches where each must go alone…? Expert cavers take five hours to do it. It’s a big test.

Black waters signal death. They are not yet safe. There is no easy euphoric way to life. There is a baptism to be baptised with.

There is waiting with Noah in the ark until the waters begin to go down.

Can the waters be drained enough for the boys to wade, waist high, not needing to scuba? Perhaps.

Will the monsoon be considerate, delaying itself? Unlikely.

Might another shorter drier way be found and opened up? Air is getting into their cave so there is a continuous crack in the mountain somewhere. Unlikely.

Courage, brother, do not stumble, though the way be dark as nightThe boys might get out in the next few days or they might not…

If not soon, they must survive in the depths for months… an unthinkable time in such conditions? At least the darkness will be lighted, with lamps not the sun… at least they will be supplied with daily food and warm clothes and health care… at least they will have lines of communication with their families…

Yet they need extraordinary strength to wait patiently… to hold together… to begin to bear the trauma which may stay with them long after they come home.

Hope given in the momentThere is no slick easy uncompromised recovery for people caught in any cave comparable with this one. Scars will not quickly fade.

Hope with the One who comes into the cave bringing light, who leads out of darkness and death along the long hard way, always bearing on his hands the signs that he comes to us all in the dark night where death is in life.

Tony and Judith had a long, happy, fruitful, Christian marriage. Just short of 50 years, Judith died of cancer and Tony was left alone. The ‘arithmetic of marriage’ changed as the One made out of Two, which is marriage, was torn apart leaving a Half. Besides all his sorrow in such a disorienting loss, the question presented itself to Tony who lived on in good health: What was he to do with the gift of life still entrusted to him? He set about working out the answer to that question. How he did it and what has come of it, in nearly four years, he tells us in this little booklet.

Those of us who are married or live in a committed partnership cannot escape the question which creeps up on us as the years pass – Which one of us will be left and what will he or she do then? Giving an answer, when the time comes, is a task that will fall to roughly 50% of us. How it is answered depends on circumstances which vary enormously. Sometimes people are left with responsibilities which define what they must do next. For example, they may have young children.

But sometimes the path is not so clear. It is easy to be overwhelmed and paralysed, leaving someone unnecessarily to fritter life away, in front of the telly perhaps. What is God’s call to those who still have a valuable life to live, even though they no longer have the energy of youth? God’s call, as Tony testifies, stops us crumbling before the apparent futility of living through the ‘dying of the light’. God’s call is life-giving grace for people all their days. It says, Wake up and Christ will give you light. Do not grow weary in well doing. (Eph 5.14, Gal.6.9). But this is no cheap grace: listening for the call and finding the way requires our engagement and struggle.

That is the message I take from what Tony has written in ‘As Long as You Both shall Live’. It may be helpful to others. If anyone would like a copy, Tony will be glad to let them have one. I will pass on any request.

Haddon Willmer