How To Save A Life

I'm currently reading "A Tale Of Two Cities." Dickens being one of my favorite authors, it's surprising that I haven't read this very famous novel of his before this time. Of course, there are so many famous novels out there to read, I'll never get to all of them....but still, I try.

As I was walking down the street reading aloud to myself (with accents, of course)....Yes, I walk down the street reading aloud; it's good practice for voice characterization and some day maybe I'll be a professional book-on-tape actor/reader. You never know. But I digress.

Reading the other day, I came to a passage in the novel that struck me so strongly I was moved to tears. Dickens has beautiful ways of wrapping stories and characters together, but this plot maneuver had special significance and beauty to me. There is a main character; Dr. Manette, a father, who has spent 20 years of his life unjustly imprisoned in the Bastille through the menaces of the aristocratic class. It was, of course, a thoroughly miserable and life-halting experience for him, one that was incredibly difficult to overcome, even when he was released.

Fast forward 10 years after his release. He is now living with his daughter, who has become everything to him. His daughter has married a French aristocrat who has renounced his title because of the unfair treatment of the lower classes and they all live in England, where they are free from the strife and bloodshed of the French Revolution.

Through circumstances unforseen, Dr. Manette's son-in-law is imprisoned by the bloodthirsty masses of the French lower classes who are now "running" France and hungry for the heads of any and all belonging to the formerly brutal upper classes. He is held captive for weeks.

Dr. Manette, knowing his situation would be heralded with revolutionary bravada - being one of the prisoners freed from the Bastille under former times - goes in and uses his great influence to make sure his son-in-law is not sent to the guillotine. Such impatience for blood was running throughout the streets that it was no small task to save a prisoner, but Dr. Manette's horrible experience in prison gave him the respect and celebrity he needed to save his son-in-law.

This may seem simple to many, but to me this small orchestration of events had incredible meaning. I have never heard such a fitting illustration of how God uses our experiences - good and BAD - to shape our lives and our futures. I'm sure that Dr. Manette didn't sit in prison for 20 years thinking, "Boy, if I can just make it out of this, I'm sure I'll be able to help someone with this experience later on down the road..." But God used his experience to save a life. Had Dr. Manette never been imprisoned, had he lived a happy and peaceful life with his daughter until he was old, he would never have been able to save his son-in-law from the guillotine. From complete misery was born complete joy.

So next time I look at my circumstances desperately and wonder why God is bringing me through one trial or another, I'll remember Dr. Manette and 20 years in prison serving as the price to free another. No time is wasted time, no matter how dismal or bleak. Everything shapes us, teaches us, and equips us to love and save others.

I hope maybe you've found something in your life to teach you the same lesson. If not, I'd like to recommend my friend Dickens. And maybe someday you, too, can say "I have saved him!"