Spelunking

I have gone spelunking exactly once in my life, though I have tried my hand at spelling, lurking and catching an occasional lunker, none compare to the act of spelunking.  Spelunking is in no way a combination of, nor has any association with, any of the aforementioned.

Spelunking is the act of crawling around in dark muddy caves.  It received its name from the Latin word “spelunca” which when translated to English means…cave. Very creative.

My one day adventure in the realm of “caving/spelunking” occurred in 1998 when I took a group of High School Students from the Chicago area across the state of Illinois, into the corn and swine infested state of Iowa where we entered into Maquoketa State Park. 

In the midst of the Iowa farmland, there exists an adventurer’s haven, where 13 caves lay waiting to be explored by 15 middle schoolers.  Despite being only 23 years old myself, I knew enough of the dangers of unsupervised middles schoolers, that I laid down some clear ground rules.

Rules:

1.       No one explores a cave alone

2.       No one explores a cave without a flashlight

3.       No one explores a cave without extra batteries

4.       No one let’s Jimmy out of their sight.

Every group has a Jimmy…no further explanation is necessary.

Because we had a Jimmy in our group…we stayed together the entire time.  We entered several caves together, exploring the rock formations and nooks and crannies.  I remember one cave in particular.  The cave orifice-d about four and a half feet off the ground and was only about two and a half feet in diameter.  To enter the cave you had to get a boost from someone below or a pull from someone above.  Once our entire team had made it into the entrance we began to crawl, as there was no space to stand.  After crawling approximately 30-50 ft, the cave opened up into a great expanse where the entire team could stand and wander and explore. It was really quite astounding.

After a few minutes, Jimmy said, “We should all turn out our lights at the same time.”

It seemed a safe enough task, so I agreed. Once all of the lights had been extinguished, the blackness consumed us.  Never had I experienced such an overwhelming and complete darkness in my life.  It was incredible.  Then Jimmy said, “Man! Could you imagine if we were like stuck in here…and we didn’t have any lights at all…and we didn’t have any extra batteries…and we couldn’t find the entrance or find our way out?”

That was a heavy and sobering thought.  We would be stuck.  The idea struck me as an incredibly hopeless situation.

In Matthew 25:1-13, Jesus speaks to the disciples about being ready for his return.  He uses a parable that speaks to the dire nature of what it would be like to find oneself un-prepared for his return.  The imagery of being stuck and unprepared reminds me of how it felt in that cave with no sense of hope.

May we find ourselves to be prepared and ready for the return of Christ and not stuck outside of the closed gate with unprepared lights.