I’ve been thinking about caves a lot recently. Caves and what they have to do with SEEING and LISTENING. What they have to do with FEAR and TRUST. Anyone know what I’m talking about? Especially in the trying times we find ourselves in at the moment. COVID is no joke and being locked away from your friends, your work and your semblance of a normal life has begun to take a toll. Not just on myself, I’m guessing, but on everyone. While locked away, FEAR has set in and planted its roots. Fear of the unknown asks questions like:
How long is this going to last?
Is there an end in sight?
What if I run out of money?
What if I can’t get a job?
What if I lose my house?
What if I have to move?
What if I get COVID or my family members do?
What if _____________ (fill in the blank)?
Not only has fear set in, but TRUST seems to be wavering. Trust that anyone actually knows what’s going on. Trust that everything is going to work out in the end. Trust that God’s hand is over everything and that He’s writing the story, whether we see the roadmap or not. Trust that we are going to wind up right where we’re meant to be. Trust that even though we have been blindfolded and led down what seems like the wrong path, what if this seemingly “wrong path” is actually leading us to deeper truth and more clarity about our path? That having been led into the cave, we now find ourselves surrounded on all sides with nothing but sheer walls of granite and no way out, and that that’s EXACTLY where we’re meant to me.
You may feel like you’re holed up in your own cave at the moment. Stuck at home. Unable to connect with others. Watching Netflix, AGAIN. Eating ANOTHER meal alone. Having the occasional FaceTime or Zoom chat when you’re feeling up for it. Maybe having ANOTHER glass of wine in the bathtub while wearing a face mask (not COVID style, but beauty style) and carrying on full conversations with yourself.
No?? Just me?? Crickets….anywho.
Maybe your cave is more of an internal emotional one. Perhaps you’re shutting down. You’re sad and depressed and everything feels dark and hopeless. Maybe you can’t see the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel and maybe you feel numb after six months of this isolating pandemic. Sometimes the cave, be it your environment around you or the one inside of you, can feel like it is closing in on you and it is going to swallow you whole. But we must remember that even caves have a purpose.
Doing a little research on caves, this is what I found:
A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground.
Interesting that in that description it includes it as a space specifically large enough for a human to enter. And historically, humans HAVE been entering caves since the beginning time. Some for the purpose of shelter or protection from weather. Others for the purpose of hiding from danger or as a place of concealment. Some for the purpose of meeting God or communing with Him in prayer. Some as dwelling places and others still as burial places. Jesus was born in a cave and he was laid to rest in a cave. We see this over and over again in scripture. I’ll put some examples below:
1 Kings 19:9
“Then he came there to a cave and lodged there; and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and He said to him, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’”Judges 6:2
“The power of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of Midian the sons of Israel made for themselves the dens which were in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds.”1 Samuel 22:1-2
“So David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam…”1 Samuel 24:2-22
“Then Saul took three thousand chosen men from all Israel and went to seek David and his men in front of the Rocks of the Wild Goats. He came to the sheepfolds on the way, where there was a cave; and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the inner recesses of the cave. The men of David said to him, ‘Behold, this is the day of which the Lord said to you, ‘Behold; I am about to give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it seems good to you.” Then David arose and cut off the edge of Saul’s robe secretly.”1 Kings 18:4
“For when Jezebel destroyed the prophets of the Lord, Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a cave, and provided them with bread and water.)”Psalm 57:1
(A Mikhtam of David, when he fled from Saul in the cave.)
“Be gracious to me, O God, be gracious to me,
For my soul takes refuge in You;
And in the shadow of Your wings I will take refuge
Until destruction passes by.”Psalm 142:1
(Maskil of David, when he was in the cave. A Prayer.)
“I cry aloud with my voice to the Lord;
I make supplication with my voice to the Lord.”Isaiah 2:19-21
“Men will go into caves of the rocks
And into holes of the ground
Before the terror of the Lord
And the splendor of His majesty,
When He arises to make the earth tremble.
In that day men will cast away to the moles and the bats
Their idols of silver and their idols of gold,
Which they made for themselves to worship,
In order to go into the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the cliffs
Before the terror of the Lord and the splendor of His majesty,
When He arises to make the earth tremble.”Revelation 6:15
“Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains…”John 11:38
“So Jesus, again being deeply moved within, came to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone was lying against it.”Genesis 25:9
“Then his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, facing Mamre…”Genesis 49:29-32
“Then he charged them and said to them, “I am about to be gathered to my people; bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought along with the field from Ephron the Hittite for a burial site. There they buried Abraham and his wife Sarah, there they buried Isaac and his wife Rebekah, and there I buried Leah.”1 Samuel 22:1
“So David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam; and when his brothers and all his father’s household heard of it, they went down there to him.”Isaiah 2:19
“Men will go into caves of the rocks
And into holes of the ground
Before the terror of the Lord
And the splendor of His majesty,
When He arises to make the earth tremble.”
And did you know that there are over at least 15 different types of caves in the world? I certainly didn’t. And not only different types, but they vary in size, in the length of time it takes for those caves to form and develop, in their geological processes, in their chemical processes, whether or not water erosion was used to form and shape them or tectonic forces or pressure or atmospheric influences, etc. Fascinating.
So why caves, you ask? Why talk about them? Why give them a second thought? Because I’ve started to assess that we are all in our own caves at this very moment and that God has us in them for a very specific reason. And that reason is
He wants to TALK to us and He wants to be HEARD by us. He wants us to work on our ability to LISTEN to Him and receive from Him when we’re in the dark.
Speaking of hearing, have you ever stood in a cave and listened to the acoustics? The echoes. How you have a heightened ability to hear things, even as simple as a drop of water falling from the ceiling? The deeper the cavern, the more the sound echoes.
So if we can’t see what’s ahead of us and we are shrouded by the blindfold of fear…and trusting in the darkness feels impossible…what if instead of wishing we were out of the cave, we fully embraced the one we’re standing in and allowed what we couldn’t see to cause us to use our other senses in a more meaningful and impactful way?
Think about it: as your sight lessons and becomes more unavailable your hearing increases and becomes drastically more heightened and aware.
Being in the cave isn’t about whether or not you have your ability to see anymore, it becomes about your hearing being strengthened and more solidified.
That’s where I believe we are. Where the Lord has led us.
So sitting in your cave at the moment, what are you hearing? Are you able to sit in the uncomfortable darkness before you and just be still and listen? Or is the stress of the unknown causing constant chatter? Are you able to listen to what God is whispering to you? Or are you doing all of the talking? Are you able to listen to where He’s leading you into deeper trust? Or are you making excuses for why He’s not trustworthy? What if you pushed all of that aside and just listened to how He wants to grow you during this unknown, scary, and oftentimes seemingly endless time? Listened to what He is speaking to your heart.
Man, I haven’t been doing a very good job of this at all. My lack of sight has caused me to wander around aimlessly, grasping at any loose rocks I can as a means of trying to pull and outsmart my way out of the cave. But instead of that, what if I allowed myself and my ego to unite with God in this damp and dark place. This place of solitude. Of little distraction. A place that has safely enclosed me in, and is keeping me out of harms way where I can just sit and be with the Father. This is true communion. And friends, let’s not forget that when our ears are attuned to Him, even when we are blindfolded, we can follow His voice and sit before Him in complete safety. For the sheep know the voice of their Good Shepherd. And because He is light, He illuminates the pathway in the midst of those dark caves. He is a clear way out in the midst of a place that feels void of any light. Once He takes the blindfold off, everything becomes SO CLEAR.
So however big or small your cave, whatever length of time you’ve found yourself stuck in it, know that you are being formed and developed within that cave. That the Lord is speaking to you, if only you will stop worrying about your sight being gone, and you would instead focus on listening intently. The Lord is providing for you within that cave. He is gently eroding the things in your life that are no longer serving you. He is shaping you by His gracious and life-giving force, by the delicate pressure of His mighty hand and the end result is going to be glorious, if you’ll simply trust Him and let Him.
He is asking you to meet Him in the cave with your blindfold on, fully ready for whatever He’s got in store. He wants to provide for you in that place. Will you set fear aside and trust that He is speaking to you even when you can’t see? Forget about seeing. The Shepherd is speaking. All you have to do is close your eyes, take a deep breath, and LISTEN.
COURAGE, BRAVEHEART 
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