I’m currently working on a project where one of the main characters has to make her way through an underground cavern where there was no light. She was supposed to feel her way through the darkness, towards the exit. It marks something of a transition for the character, like all clumsy overused metaphors in stories do. But a strange thing happened while I was writing the scene. I threw in a line that just felt right and it totally changed things. You see, it turned out that she wasn’t alone in the cavern. She was supposed to be alone, but the story wasn’t happy with that. It turned out that, in the blackness, she wasn’t alone, and that made things much more interesting.
Travelling through the darkness alone was supposed to be just a challenge the character overcame in order to get to where she needed to be, but there’s something about someone making their way through a dark cavern that always makes me think about life. It’s how I often feel – that I’m working my way through some underground network totally unable to see where I’m heading. I have no idea where I’m going, but I know that I have to keep moving. Perhaps I’m hoping, like the character in my story, that I’ll stumble upon a magical exit that brings me out into the bright daylight. Instead it seems like an unending series of pitch black tunnels.
Maybe that’s why (OK, I think that’s definitely why) I found the story wanted to put another character into the cavern. Despite not knowing where I’m going to end up, I don’t often feel like I’m alone. I can’t see my hand in front of my face, let alone another person, but I know he’s there. Sometimes it’s like I’m just standing around, wondering where to go. Am I even facing the right direction? I don’t know. Then I get a gentle push, or a voice whispering encouragement in my ear. Instead of jumping out of my skin (as I would in real life) I allow myself to get infected with hope. I’m not alone in here.
It’s usually enough to keep me going for a while, gingerly pressing on, hoping that my passing might lift the darkness a little in the lives of others. Because I think that’s really all God asks of any of us – just keep going.
