A man named John was walking beside a steep cliff one day, when he accidentally stepped too close to the edge and began to fall. As he fell he reached out and grabbed a branch, which stopped his fall for a few moments. He glanced down and was shocked to see that the canyon went straight down for over a thousand feet.

He knew he wouldn’t be able to hang on to the branch for very long, and there wasn’t a way for him to climb up the face of the cliff. So, Jack started to yell for help, hoping that maybe someone above would hear him and toss a rope or get help.

“HELP! HELP!” he called, “Is anyone up there? HELP!”

He yelled for a while, but no one responded. He was just about to give up when he heard a voice call, “Jack, Jack. Can you hear me?”

Jack quickly replied, “Yes, yes! I can hear you. I’m down here!”

The voice said, “I can see you, Jack. Are you all right?”

“Yes, but who are you, and where are you?” asked Jack anxiously.

“I am the Lord, Jack. I am everywhere.”

“The Lord? You mean, GOD?”

“That’s Me.”

“God, please help me! I promise that if you’ll get me down from here, I’ll stop sinning. I’ll be a really good person. I’ll serve You for the rest of my life.”

“Easy on the promises, Jack. Let’s get you off from there; then we can talk.”

“Now, here’s what I want you to do. Listen carefully.”

“I’ll do anything, Lord. Just tell me what to do.”

“Okay. Let go of the branch.”

“What?”

“I said, let go of the branch. Just trust Me. Let go.”

Then there was a long silence as Jack pondered this.

Finally Jack yelled, “HELP! HELP! IS ANYONE ELSE UP THERE?”