Perseverance

I'm certain that I could not do what Linda did. Hiding in a hole for years and years, imagining escape, thirsting for it and yearning for more. I'm not entirely sure what drove her there--I mean, we obviously say that it was the slavery and the harsh treatment--but could you do it? Could you survive such conditions on a glimmer of hope? I like to think that I could have the perseverance to do it. However, I think it was more than perseverance that drove Linda to do this. I think it was massive amounts of hope. I firmly believe that hope drove her. This seems like an elementary thought, but as I was reading a few of the parts about how she was in the hole, I thought about putting myself in that situation. This elementary revelation that I had was quite profound. This is less of a literary critique and more of a literal spiritual thought that I had while reading.

I believe that, sometimes, we are in situations that test all that we have. I believe that--figuratively--we are stuck for days and days and months and months and years and years in the same hole--waiting for the chance to escape, the glimmer hope, a breeze of change. Something inside of us drives us to persevere. The prospect of a better life away from the pain and inhumanity drove Linda to keep reaching and praying for hope, and sometimes that is all that we have. Sometimes, the only glimmer of hope that we have is a little hole in our situations that we can barely see through; however, we can see something. Light will pour through the hole, and we will remember that there is still light. I believe that Linda had a little tiny place that she could look and see the light and feel the breeze. Light will always pour into our dark places. Even if we can't see anything in the darkness and despair of a hole in the ground, we will be able to see enough to remember that Jesus doesn't forget that we are buried. We may not be able to see everything, but we can see him. Just as Linda could still hear her Grandmother's voice in that pit, we can still hear the voice of God and see His light.

God does interesting things through literature. I'm not a slave, and I've never face what Linda faced, but I understand the idea of being constricted by circumstances and waiting to be let out of them and being able to finally breathe.