I was buffeted this way
and that way by the winds.
The waves of the sea rushed in upon me
and carried me
wherever they were pushed
by the strong winds.
The waves pounded me upon the rocks
and crushed me against the cliffs.
I could not escape the winds
and the sea.
I was drowning;
I could not swim.
I looked for something to hold onto.
Everything I found,
was also swept away.

When I saw those things swept away,
I lost all hope in them,
and no longer tried to reach for them.
When I had given up all hope of saving myself,
the One I had thought was weakest of all
saw my distress;
and the Strongest of All
picked me up.
He carried me above the raging waters,
and set me upon a high Rock
far above the waves of the sea,
where His Right Hand
is shielding me from the winds.

O how many years have I spent in this pit,
walking and stumbling in the miry clay?
How long have I groped about in the darkness,
feeling with my hands against the walls
for a handhold to climb out of the pit?
I stumbled around in the great darkness;
for there was no Light at all.
It was the blackest of nights
and I was black;
No Light was shining on me;
neither the Sun, nor the Moon,
and none of the Stars.

Sometimes while groping,
I felt a protrusion
on a wall of the pit.
My hope would rise within me
as I thought,
“Aha! Here is something I can hold onto!
Perhaps I can now climb out of this pit.”
But in the darkness,
my eyes could not see
that the protrusion I had found
was covered with slime and corruption.
As soon as my hands gripped it,
they would slide off it,
plummeting me to the bottom
where I would again sink into the mire.

O how many years have I groped,
and how many protrusions have I gripped?
And how many of them
have sent me back again into the pit?
Countless numbers of them.
Countless numbers of them.
I cannot count them;
there have been so many!

How ignorant I must have been
not to realize long ago
that all the protrusions
in the sides of the pit
are covered with that slimy stuff.
When I finally realized it,
and gave up hope
of climbing out by my own strength,
then the One
I had always thought was weak
let down a Rope from the edge of the pit,
holding it by His Right Hand.

For ages,
He’s told me He could pull me out,
but I had laughed at Him
and ridiculed Him for saying so
because He had appeared to be so very weak.
But I had nowhere else to turn,
so I turned to Him,
the One whom I once had despised
and had turned to Him my back.
When the Rope reached me,
it seemed to be made of old rotten rags.
I protested, “This will never hold together.
As soon as my weight is put upon it,
it will break apart.”

But I put my trust in the words
of the One holding the Rope
rather than what I had observed.
Because of my belief,
a great Light began to shine into the pit,
and the Light of the Sun and the Moon
and all the Stars
began to shine very brightly upon me.
Because of the Light,
I became white
and my eyes could see!
I could see the pit for what it is,
and I could see many things that are in the pit;
things that I could not see before,
and they are horrible things.

When I saw them,
I wanted more than ever
to get out of the pit.
I can also see the Rope now.
All my doubts about the Rope are dispelled,
for I can now see,
enclosed by the rotten rags,
is a chain of steel that cannot be broken.
Even now, that Rope is pulling me up
out of the pit.