Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. Psalm 23:4 (NKJV)
Part Two – Valley Places
Go to PART 1
Here’s something I can’t explain… God is in all things, he is good, he is love, he is reflected in his creation… And then there are horrific, tragic, disgusting, frightening things in creation. Why? I don’t know. Maybe the evil that is present in the world has a way of infecting nature as well as flesh and blood.
There are places I simply will not go, that frighten me, make me feel unsafe and insecure. Places that are dangerous and potentially life threatening. A dense forest at night (anyone picturing the Fire Swamp from the Princess Bride? ROUS’s?), the beach during wild weather, a mountain side with loose rocks, a river running at speeds to win a car race. Places where there is no water for days, where the ground lies barren and wasted. I think of an eerie valley devoid of noise and vegetation except for the dark row of trees 100m either side that seems to be alive with eyes. I think of the cross I see staked by the road on my drive to school enshrining the spot where someone's boy was killed in a car accident. I think of the beach ten minutes up the road where a man in his 50’s drowned last summer. My brother ran for help while someone else administered CPR, but they were both too late. I think of the fields upon fields upon fields soaked in blood all across the earth from the countless wars that have raged upon them. Too much blood. I think of bushfires, cyclones, volcanoes, swamps, floods… sometimes nature seems to be all too evil to find God within it.
Why is it that some days my local beach pulsates with the presence of God while the walking track to get there seems scary as hell?
David writes,
“Lord, even when your path takes me through the valley of deepest darkness, fear will never conquer me, for you already have! You remain close to me and lead me through it all the way. Your authority is my strength and my peace. The comfort of your love takes away my fear. I’ll never be lonely for you are near.”
What I am sure of is that there is no ‘presence’ on the earth that his presence can’t override. Places of fear and darkness can't dispel his strength and peace, or dethrone his authority. More than that, he seems to move into these places, occupying them in a transcendent way. God didn’t lift David out of the valley, he travelled through it with him. Together. Through the fear, through the pain… He will travel with you through whatever it is that is gripping your life and halting it.
And there’s something about discovering God in these places that almost makes them more sacred than the sunny, carefree days where praise slips from your lips with the afternoon breeze. Finding God in ease and rest is reassuring and strengthening. Finding God in the midst of heartache and downright terror, on the brink of life, on the edge of sanity, is holy and miraculous.
Don’t go getting yourself into unnecessary trouble to experience rescue. Life has its own way of leading you there. So when it comes; when you look up from your life and find yourself in a dark valley, look for God, listen for the divine. He is with you in the darkness just as he is in the light. That is something I know for sure.
Go to Part 3 – Wine on the Table
