through the mud

How easy it was, at first, to methodically make my way through the dense mud. What began as a puddle had grown into its own entity. It was almost life-like, with clingy hands pulling me deeper, while blinding me from my need for help. I couldn't see the depth of it's darkness or how tightly it had me, for it was all I knew. Each step was like every step before it, except this was a downhill slope. I was content in my ignorance.
Yet rays of light began to penetrate the walls of my existence. Even the dimmest light hurts as the eyes adjust, but how much deeper the pain when glimpses of a fearful reality begin to turn the heart cold. Anger welled inside, with songs of self-confidence bellowing in my head, creating a sense of euphoria. Pride smothered doubts that wanted to take root in my subconscious. But each step was now different. It was not taken in ignorance. I could not understand how anything could ever be different, and wasn't convinced it should be. I only knew that the darkness had been comfortable but was now menacing.
In time, reality began to feel cold and constricting. I was sinking deeper and for the first time wanted out. Light was breaking through in larger amounts, and my situation showed itself to be impossible. I resigned myself to being swallowed up in a pit of black. There was nothing I could do. I was alone. In a pitiful cry of sorrow, I called out for help. A blinding light shattered the darkness, and there was a rock. With no hesitation I reached up and clung to it. It was my only way out. Now I stand on the Rock, clean and safe. It is my job to be a light so that others might see.

Shortly after I wrote this, I read the following verses in Psalm 4:1-2
I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.

And also Psalm 107:10-14:

Those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death,
Bound in affliction and irons-
Because they rebelled against the words of God,
And despised the counsel of the Most High,
Therefore He brought down their heart with labor;
They fell down, and there was none to help.
Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
And He saved them out of their distresses.
He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death,
And broke their chains in pieces.