The Rescue

The rescue started out like a scene from one of the many action films. A Special Forces Team getting ready to free some long missed but not forgotten prisoners of war. The time came and everything went according to the plan with only a couple of minor injuries.

What happened next surprised everyone, including myself. You see I was one of the prisoners. I’ve been a prisoner for more years than I care to remember. How I was captured is no longer important, but I can tell you I was a large in charge kind of guy. Not only was I physically large, some might say fat, but never to my face. I was loud, and more then borderline obnoxious.

I used to think I was invincible, and I would never get caught, and even after I was, I boldly told myself and anyone who would listen, no prison could hold me. After all of the years stuck in the hole, I can honestly say my spirit was never broken, but it was tamed.

Shortly after I was captured, I got to witness with my fellow prisoners a new young officer being put in charge of the prison. Not being able to understand what was being said, I became bored, and began looking around for some way to escape. This is when I first noticed Ben. He had his head down with his eyes shut, and tears streaming down his face.

I slowly worked my way over to him, and whispered into his ear, “We’ll be O.K. to be strong, and soon we will be back with our families.”
He turned to me with a puzzled look and said, “All of my family is with God. I don’t want to see them until my work here is done. I don’t cry for them or myself. I cry for the new Commander. He is a prisoner here as we are with one exception, he has no hope of ever being rescued. We do.”

I thought the poor guy had lost his mind. He had been here to long, and suffered too many fevers.

The new Commander was quick to implement changes. All military prisoners were to be separated. We were stuffed in small cages just big enough for one, with another prisoner. I was put in with Ben. Everyone was interviewed at least once a day. Most people would call the interviews something else, but it no longer matters. The Commander was present at most of them, never showing emotion, or participating.
After a while I was starting to wonder how much more I could take, and was amazed by Ben. He would come back beat up, and smiling. I finally asked him why? Were they shooting him up with drugs?

“No. I got another chance to tell them about Jesus. When I get back here still alive, I rejoice, for I will get another chance to tell them about Jesus. I have also seen they have been listening. The blows are with less conviction, and the Commander hasn’t missed one interview in over a month.”
I never believed in that religious mumbo jumbo, but with no one else to talk with and never finding any chance to escape, we started to talk. I asked straight forward questions, like why did bad things happen, pointing out our current situation. He simply answered back with a question.

“If you were not here, do you think you would ever had given a thought about God?”

I thought about it for a few days, and had to admit I wouldn’t have thought about God. I than asked him why he was here? He answer was simple.

“Someone needed to be here to teach you about God, and I am just his humble servant.”
I watched his body get weaker with time like mine, but I could honestly see the joy in his eyes. Finally at the end of my rope, deeply depressed, wishing I could die, I asked him if he could tell me how I might find just an ounce of the joy he had. I still remember his words to me.

“The only thing you need to do is confess your sins to Jesus, and except him as your savior.”

I told him it was too simple for me to understand, which made him laugh.
He drew a picture in the dirt of a big valley with me on one side and God on the other. He told me the valley represented my sins which separated me from God who is sinless. To be separated from the Creator of all things is to be living in hell.
Looking around I couldn’t imagine hell being much worse than this, but Ben assured me that it was, for here was only temporary. Here we will either be rescued, which I was having serious doubts about, or we would die, but when we die we no longer have the chance to except Jesus as our savior.

He then drew a cross with it bridging the gap over the valley between God and Me. By confessing, and placing my sins with Jesus, God’s only son, completely sinless, who died out of love on the cross for us, a bridge is forged between God and myself. A bridge that could never be destroyed.

I studied the picture for the longest time, finding it hard to believe how simple it was, but it made perfect sense. I slept on it, and by the next morning I woke with a sense of urgency. I found I believed Ben, and the question, ‘What are you waiting for?’ kept going through my head.

I bowed my head and prayed to God for the first time in my life, and the more I confessed my sins to him, the lighter my heart began to feel. By the time I was done, I felt free for the first time in my life, and found more than the ounce of joy I was looking for.

I opened my eyes to see the sun was up, and Ben watching me, grinning from ear to ear.

“We are now Brothers with a bond stronger then blood, for our bond is through the blood of Christ.”

The days with Ben passed quickly with him teaching me everything he could remember from his study of the Bible. They were happy days. My daily interviews became joyful, not pleasant, but joyful, for I took every opportunity I could to talk about Jesus.

After a while a fever took Ben, but even though I missed his teaching and companionship, I was joyful, for I knew he had done God’s will, and saved me. I am thankful, and look forward to seeing him again.

The Commander sat in on all of my interviews, and after a while it ended up being just the two of us. He never spoke to me, just listened. The interviews became less frequent, and finally stopped. I never knew until today if he understood what I was saying.
After we were all freed and back at the base airport waiting for our plane home, I noted the Commander was one of the prisoners the Special Forces had captured. I was finally able to convince one of the guards to let me talk with the commander in private.

With the guard standing in one corner of the room, and the Commander across the table from me, I said, “I want to thank you for all you did for me. I can’t say I enjoyed it, but none the less I am grateful for the results.”

The Commander stayed quiet, but I could see the puzzle in his eyes.

“When I arrived, I was fat and overweight, not only physically, but mentally, and spiritually I was dead. Now I am lean and strong mentally. Maybe a little to lean physically, but spiritually I am alive! You humbled me, and that I am most thankful for.”

I extended my right hand to his still in handcuffs. To my surprise, he shook my hand and held onto it for the longest of time. I looked at him puzzled, and noticed a tear in his eye, and he spoke to me for the first time.
“If you can forgive me brother, I would like to ask one favor.”

With tears now in my eyes, I realized he had listened to all I had said, and we were now brothers in Christ.

“Of course.”

“Could I have a Bible?”

I looked to the guard, who simply shrugged, and said I would have to talk with the base Chaplin, to which I responded, now would be a good time.

The Chaplin was more than eager to provide a Bible for the Commander, and informed me how it was illegal for anyone to own a Bible in his country, and if anyone had found out about him being a Christian, he would have been killed on the spot.
I was able to give the Bible to the Commander just before he got on the transport, and told him it was now his turn to carry on the good work.

He smiled back at me for the first time, and said, “With great pride and joy.”

I am old enough now to see God didn’t have me captured, I was being rescued from myself, and now I can see the Commander hasn’t been captured, but freed to enjoy God.