Sinkholes and Secrets

Jul 2

When the Cave Collapses

Mammoth Cave in a sentence? “It’s a long way down.”

To be truthful, when Jess and I visited mid-May, Mammoth Cave National Park wasn’t quite what I expected…nor were the thoughts that eventually hit my heart later. I haven’t visited many caves, so I suppose my idea of what they are like is as seen through the eyes of Hollywood’s adventure movie creators. You know what I mean. The hero finds a treasure map which leads to a hidden cave entrance in the side of a mountain. As luck would have it, there happens to be an old torch waiting for him, so he lights it and decides to explore what might be hidden in the darkness. The cave is, of course, loaded with booby traps that have been set by the ancient natives to protect mounds of gold and precious treasures. Said natives discovered a way to shift the massive walls of the cave to hold back the water of a huge underground river and set a trigger that if tripped will open up the dam, release the water, and collapse the walls, trapping both treasure and intruder in the cave forever…the hero, of course, barely escapes in the nick of time.

It makes for a good story and a thrilling adventure, doesn’t it? Imagine my surprise, then, as we drove into the park and there wasn’t a mountain in sight. Initially, it was a bit of a letdown. I was hoping for topside hikes that would lead to mountain summits with beautiful panoramic views of the valley below, as well as the tours that would take us to the secrets hidden in the Cave. But what did we get instead?

Sinkholes.

Yep, you read that right. Sinkholes. Underwhelming, isn’t it? (Pun intended, ha!) Our first hike was to Cedar Sink. I took a picture of the “Karst Window” sign that was posted there because “karst” was an interesting and unknown word, not because I found the information on the sign intriguing. I didn’t understand until later what I was really seeing. Still, I tried to appreciate the hike for what it was, rather than what it wasn’t. The lush vegetation and the rock formations in the sinkhole were beautiful in their way, and the cave was really what we came to see anyway.

To say that the cave tours were eye-opening is rather an oxymoronic statement since they were, in truth, a descent more than a hundred feet into the darkness below. As we turned and twisted through narrow crevasses in the rock, down hundreds (yes, hundreds) of stairs, I could not help but think that once we got to our destination at the bottom, we would eventually have to make our way back up. Would the “view” be worth the descent? If I’m honest, had we only done the one tour on that first day, I’d have to say not so much. I mean, in my estimation, if you’ve seen one stalactite or stalagmite, you’ve seen ‘em all. Yeah, that whole first day…the big sinkhole topside, the massive “rock room” below…meh.

So, I didn’t internally greet the second day at the park with as much zeal as the first, but a new day means a new opportunity to discover something you didn’t the day before, right? I wouldn’t necessarily say it was an earth-shattering experience, but possibly ground-breaking?

If you’ll permit me to wax nerdy for a paragraph (you knew it was coming), I eventually learned that Mammoth Cave is in what is known as a karst landscape. In a karst landscape, caves are formed from two things: soft rock and water, more specifically rainwater. The rainwater takes on chemicals from the atmosphere and becomes slightly acidic. The plant material on the surface of the ground also aids in the process as it decays and produces carbon. As the rainwater seeps through the soil it picks up the decaying matter forming carbonic acid. It’s this acid that eats through the soft rock creating channels and large cavities below the surface. Years later, voila, the result is a cave.

(Fellow nerds may visit these links if your fascination has been triggered: https://www.livescience.com/29735-how-do-caves-form-.html https://study.com/academy/lesson/karst-topography-definition-features.html )

Day #2 took us deeper below the surface than the first. Some of the openings were so narrow as we descended. I had to turn to squeeze through them. I was already grateful for every light that had been placed along the tunnels and crevasses to help me keep my footing, but I didn’t realize how much I appreciated them until we entered an expansive “room” many feet below. It was set up with a number of wooden benches for those touring to sit and rest and listen to the instruction of the tour guide. Large mounds of collapsed rock surrounding the outer edges drew my attention as the members of our tour group found a seat. After several minutes of droning on…I mean, sharing exceptionally interesting historical information…the guide instructed us to make sure we had silenced our phones and put them away in order to allow everyone the natural experience of being in a cave. After letting us know what he was about to do, and requesting that no one move or speak, he switched off the lights for a few moments.

Without the light and no movement, as far as my eyes could tell, there was nothing there other than darkness and silence. I could not see my hand as I waved it directly in front of my face, let alone the mounds of collapsed rock piled up everywhere around me. Yet topside, in the light, the sinkhole told another story. Somehow, somewhere, the acidic rain from the surface had seeped in, eating through the soft rock to the cavern where I sat. It had found its way in unaided by light or sound. Little by little it had dissolved the rock away until there was nothing left to hold the weight above it, and it caved in. Sitting there in the darkness, my eyes could not define the places where the cave had collapsed, but as I walked topside around the rim of that sinkhole, I had witnessed the evidence of what was here below.

I’ve lived in a little of a paradox since then. My mind moving between thinking about it alot to trying not to think about it all since I’ve been home. I’ve shared with several friends recently that as I write this blog, the blog is writing me. I see both where I’ve been and where I’m going…the state of my heart as it has been, as it is, and how it could be. The Holy Spirit reminded me of an account I have read many times in the Scriptures but never from a “subterranean” perspective: the woman at the well and her encounter with Jesus. (If you don’t know it, you’ll find it in John 4:4-29 .)

It has occurred to me that the heart of this woman ran as deep as the well that she was drawing from…as did her mental and emotional pain. Having had five husbands, she had been both loved and disregarded many times…labeled and rejected by society. Many disappointing life experiences had seeped into the depths of her soul, slowly eating through her heart. As she arrived at the well, she was still moving through the ordinary living of life, doing what needed to be done to survive. Avoiding their silent judgment, she came to the well hours after the other women of the village met there. Though involved in another relationship, she was still walking in the dark…unseeing and unseen. Yet, the sinkhole revealing a collapse in the recesses of her heart was quite obvious to Jesus. He’d seen her and known everything about her before she ever encountered Him, and still He pursued.

Many expositions have been written and sermons preached about Jesus being the Living Water, Who fully satisfies. It was and is His testimony of Himself, and I am profoundly grateful! But that isn’t what has wrecked me as I’ve meditated on this encounter.

It’s the words of the woman as she is sharing the encounter she has just had with Jesus: “Come, see a Man Who told me all that I ever did!..” (John 4:29 English Standard Version)

As I considered it, at first I was rather puzzled. “Hey, y’all, I just met a man that repeated back to me every sordid, shameful thing I ever did. You really need to meet him!” What?!? Yes, said NO ONE in the history of ever, before or since! How could she possibly say that, and why would she want to?

Because there is just something about Jesus and the way He loves. There’s something about the way He comes to us in our darkness, in our secret, silent pains…the way He understands how the circumstances of life, our own insecurities and our disappointments in failed relationships have weighed us down and brought our hearts to a point of collapse. In Spirit and in Truth, He comes. Knowing exactly who we are and where we are, He loves us right there. He accepts us as we are…our obvious failings, our secret sins. Still, He pursues…though it is a long way down, He comes…and sits…and engages us in honest conversation, revealing a better way. Offering hope. Because that’s Who He is…Christ in us, the Hope of Glory! I’m captivated by that.

Still more deeply I have examined my own heart with the Holy Spirit. And I see that I have been both the woman at the well and the self-righteous member of society.

As the woman, I have walked in the depths of my own darkness, surrounded by the rubble of my own collapsed heart. Needing hope.

As the self-righteous society member, I have stood on the rims of sinkholes in the lives of others, passing judgment on their surface behaviors, failing to understand they were walking where I have also been way more than once. Needing hope.

I could sit here forever regretting that up to now I have never fully understood, let alone revealed, the message of Colossians 1:26-27 (English Standard Version): “the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

Or.

I could let Him in completely…both Eternal Light and Living Water! I could let Him light the collapsed caverns of my own soul, speak His comforting love to the deep places of my pain and wash away the acidic influences of a fallen world from my heart. Rather than passing judgment on things I don’t fully understand, I could stand on the rims of the sinkholes in the lives of others, bearing witness to them that He IS Christ…the Hope of Glory! It’s a choice He gives all of us.

I guess I could say then, that though my trip to Mammoth Cave did not meet my natural expectations, it has given me great spiritual expectation. In a word, it’s HOPE.

If we’re honest…REALLY honest…we all have sinkholes, we all have secrets, and we all need hope. REAL hope. And I find it deeply comforting to know that hope isn’t a feeling at all. It’s a Person. He’s Jesus. He actively pursues each one of us, to bring us into relationship with Him. He’s yours and He’s mine for eternity if we want Him, wherever we may find ourselves. And from my perspective? Hollywood could never write a better story!