Standing

As I was walking along the path I noticed him up ahead. He was just standing there, quiet, and all alone. I wondered what he was doing there but knew it was somehow better to allow him the space to just be. As I approached him he turned and looked at me. I saw in his eyes the pain and struggle and burdens of life and I knew at that moment the reason he was there, standing on the edge. I knew he was struggling with the question, 'Should I just do it? Should I take that next step? I understood the battle raging deep within his being , I wanted to help him, to bring comfort to his soul. But I understood that my words would ring hollow in his ears. I knew he must have heard so many words, so many suggestions by well-intentioned friends and probably many words of condemnation by those along the way who were not so well-intentioned.
So, when I came to him I simply stopped and stood there next to him, without words, just standing. We stood there, quiet, simply sharing presence and then very slowly he turned and looked into my eyes. I felt the depth of his pain and struggle and at that moment I felt our hearts being joined by a force greater than either of us. I knew I was on that path at that moment for this encounter. It was to be my role to bear his burden with him, to offer care and comfort in the midst of the battle.
As we stood there I could sense the intensity of his struggle subsiding as I felt the added weight and woundedness of his soul now pressing down on me as I accepted that small part of his burden. Healing was beginning to come to his inner being.
And then I offered him my hand and he stepped over the edge, onto the path and joined me on the journey to knowing Jesus, to knowing the love of Jesus that is so immense that it transcends the very limits of all we can know.
He never looked back at the darkness of the dense underbrush from which he had emerged, at the emptiness of the forms he had so desperately tried to embrace for healing. He never again wanted to sacrifice the freedom he now felt for the bondage of that empty ritual.
Wanderer101