I do it a lot.
I use a word I’ve used a gazillion times, and suddenly it sounds so weird, I find myself typing it into the Search Bar and spending 15 minutes learning the word’s origin.
It happened Friday. I used the word “pitfall” at work, suddenly felt like I’d used a foreign word, and simply HAD to type it into the Search Bar.
Here’s what I learned: If you dig a hole, camouflage it, and wait for something or someone to fall into the hole, you have created a “pitfall trap” which we all saw put into action on Gilligan’s Island and LOST and, really, any t.v. show that took place in a jungle.
Is that the way I referred to the word when I used it at work? No. I had NOT set any traps. I used the word’s other meaning: as a hidden or unsuspected danger or difficulty. “The pitfalls of using this type of system are .....”
So, a person can create a pitfall (set a trap) or they can experience a pitfall (fall into a metaphorical trap or stumble into an unforeseen danger or difficulty.)
The funny thing about these words I hear that compel me to type them into a Search Bar and spend 15 minutes of my life learning about, is what I also refer to as a pitfall.
Search Bars are a pitfall for me.
They open up a giant hole and lead me down a dark fall into hundreds of Search Results, until I finally thud, getting to the bottom of it. I can waste a lot of time bellying up to the Search Bar. I could be a Search Bar alcoholic if I wasn’t careful. There’s just so much to see on Pinterest. Right?
Life is full of the “trap” sort of pitfalls: dangerous traps set by others, and also the traps we set, ourselves.
Some pitfalls are shallow enough that we can crawl out on our own with a little effort expended; but some of those pits are unfathomably deep. So deep, that when we stand at the bottom, staring up at the tiny patch of light far above us, we know we will never escape the pit on our own.
It is then we need friends and loved ones with long arms who can get us out of the pit. A friend’s reach can pull us to safety if we reach up to them.
But, for those deepest of pits, when the light at the top is nothing more than a postage stamp of hope, we need someone with an infinitely long reach, who, after we reach up as far as we possibly can, will make up the difference, grab our hand tightly, and pull us up. For me, that is Jesus Christ. He is my Savior from the pitfalls of my life. Some of those pits Life set for me, and some of those pits I dug all by myself. Christ doesn’t differentiate. He offers me his hand, and says “Come, follow me.”
He says the same to you. All we need to do is reach up as far as we can, and He will close the gap.
Wow, what a surprise this article was! I love it. Truly will share this.