Set Free
I could feel the fire before I could see it. The heat crawled across my skin and filled my lungs with smoke until every breath tasted like ash. When I turned away from it, the water was waiting. A black wave rose higher and higher, its cold spray stinging my face as it curled over me.
There was nowhere to go. Iron bit into my wrists, and the chains held me fast to the rock. I pulled until my arms shook and the links rang against the stone, but they wouldn't give. I hadn't eaten in weeks. My lips were cracked and my throat was raw, and whatever strength I'd once had was almost gone.
The flames crept closer. The wave began to fall. And just when I knew it was over,
the heavens opened.
Light broke through the storm, brighter than anything I had ever seen, and a dove came down through it toward me. As the light reached my hands, I understood who had come for me.
Jesus Christ met me in that place. He didn't pull me away from the fire or lift me over the flood. He gave me strength. His power surged through my hands and into the iron, and the chains that were meant to hold me shattered. I rose to my feet and walked out of the fire unburned, through the waters, still standing.
That strength never left me. It's what I build my life on now. As a master trainer, I help people find out they're stronger than the chains they carry. And it's carrying me down a new path, learning to build intelligent machines. I'm creating ADI, my own AI, and chasing a dream to help build humanoid robots so lifelike you can hardly tell them from a person.
This is my path, and I have a long road ahead. But I don't walk it alone.
Every step forward is by His grace.