The Bridge Worker's Two Hands

On the morning of March 15, 1978, a scaffold collapsed beneath Frank Medina on a bridge construction site outside Tulsa, Oklahoma. He fell twelve feet and caught a steel crossbeam with one hand, dangling above the Arkansas River. His foreman, Ray Caldwell, crawled out on the beam above him and reached down. "Frank, give me your other hand," Ray called. But Frank's left hand was locked around a tool belt he'd spent three months' wages on. "You've got to let go of that belt," Ray said. "Grab my hand and say you trust me." Frank looked down at the churning brown water forty feet below. He looked at the belt. He looked at Ray's calloused, steady hand. Then Frank released the belt, gripped Ray's wrist with everything he had, and shouted, "I trust you, Ray — pull me up." Two hands working together saved Frank Medina that morning. One hand reached. The other let go.

The Apostle Paul understood this Christ-ward geometry of salvation. Romans 10:9 names the two movements that work as one: "If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." The mouth confesses — that is the hand reaching up. The heart believes — that is the hand releasing everything else. Neither alone is enough. Confession without belief is empty words over a canyon. Belief without confession is a closed fist still gripping what cannot save you. But together — heart and mouth, trust and declaration — they form the grip that holds fast to the risen Christ.