The Pit

I was scrubbing a pool today. Sort of an odd way to start this but it's the truth. I was cleaning out the pool for the gentleman that I work for. Apparently given all of the storms that have come through, the pool that I just cleaned not more then a few weeks ago is now filthy again. I'm definitely not the chemist or the person that can identify what kind of grime was building up down there but all I know was that I was down in this pool with the brush and this concoction of degreasers that should kill anything you throw at it. I started scrubbing everything I could trying to get this junk off surface. I had just finished the bottom when I went to climb out. I got no traction. Every two feet I climbed up, I slid 3 feet back. I'm laughing on the inside and angry on the outside because I'm totally stuck. That's when I started thinking about sin. That's when I start thinking that in our spiritual lives (by the way, please note that I say "we" and not, "you" because we're all in this together) we are in the same pit. We are stuck in something so deep that we can't get out of it. In our own strength, we slide back down time and time again. We need something to carry us out of the mess we made. Thankfully, we've been given a wonderful answer in Jesus. "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast." Ephesians 2:8-9 My boss told me that he could've let the hose down for me had I asked. I laughed about that. The hose would've been my climb out of that pit. And honestly, Jesus chose to be that escape for us. He climbed down into our pit, laid Himself down, and let us climb up on Him. I will never fully understand that love but I couldn't be more thankful for it! Thank you Father that you pulled us out of what we were in.