An explosion at a mine in New Zealand caused the cave to collapse locking 29 miners inside with limited supplies of food and water. The authorities assimilated a small robotic device to search for the miners but found themselves frustrated as the device malfunctioned at 550 meters into the mine. CNN reports that due to extremely harmful gases promenading in the atmosphere of the mine, human exposure to such gases could be lethal. Thus no rescuers have been permitted to enter the mine thus far.
Miner rescuers find themselves at a place of extreme frustration because of the gaseous hindrance that forbids aid for the miners. Family members have begun to lose hope and chose to memorialize their family members with flowers and cards filled with love. Many of their hopeless hearts must be filling with the heaviness of depression and sorrow. While some choose to grasp to an inkling of hope, others are preparing themselves for devastation. What is the difference between the two groups?
William Backus and Marie Chapian speak of depression in their book Telling yourself the truth. The authors express that two misbeliefs undergird the despair of depression: first that God is not the source of life, Man is; and secondly, since X has been lost the world no longer has significance. If these are in fact true it causes me to ponder these two questions. Do these people believe God to be the source of life? Can they still find significance in life?
Hope is always a good thing to have. In a situation like this, I can't even begin to imagine what the families of the miners think. Anger, despair, hope, who knows? Only God can make anything happen right now. I pray that a miracle does happen because it does look like a hopeless situation.
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