I will fear no evil, for you are with me… Ps 23:4 (TPT)

Seasons of Darkness – Going Through Hell Series – Part 4

Go to PART 1  |  PART 2  |  PART 3  |  PART 4  |  PART 5  |  PART 6  |  PART 7

This is the part that no one likes. This is a truth that sounds so cliche that it is actually a truth.

To experience triumph, there has to be a battle.
To be healed, you have to be broken.
You can’t fully experience joy unless you know deep pain.
There is no resurrection without a death.

If we allow them to, our greatest trials and pains and heartaches and tragedies can be our greatest teachers, showing us the path to joy, peace, meaning, love and strength.

If we let them.

David was resolute when he wrote, “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me…”

I can picture him at that moment: on the run from Saul, in the dark, death at his heels, prophecies unfulfilled, dreams unrealised and he, David, comes to a stop, sits on the ground, breathes in and out, closes his eyes, heart focusing, spirit surrendering, lips praying:

“YOU. ARE. WITH. ME. I. WILL. NOT. FEAR.”

Once, long ago, a father told his troubled son, who was wondering if he had lost everything:

“You are always with me. And everything I have is yours.” (Luke 15).

Joseph Campbell wrote, “The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.”

You have to walk INTO and THROUGH the seasons of darkness to get to the other side. If you enter fully awake and aware, surrendered, still, breathing, you will make it through. And you'll find that you've collected some treasures on the journey.

If you careen through these seasons, rush along them, crash blindly around, punch and kick and scream and wail, you are likely to miss every good thing that grace could have uncovered for you along the way.

And it is a grace.

No one wants to hear that the hells they go through can bring them treasures. It's a hard thing to comprehend. It's almost offensive. How can the death of a child, or the betrayal of a partner, or the hardship of abuse, war and racism, sexism and discrimination, greed and hate, oppression and disease… how can these things offer us any kind of gold?

To be honest, I’m still figuring it out. And to be super honest, I think I’ll be working on that until the day I die. What I do know is that when I’ve gone through hell, and I have once or twice, and when I've embraced the season and lived into it wholeheartedly, it’s grace that shows me hidden treasures along the way.

Treasures like strength, growth, meaning, love, hope, overcoming, tenacity, intuition, endurance, friendship (which is not to be underestimated…). The treasure of being present to every moment: the embrace of your child, your partners singing voice, the letters your sister sends you, the phone calls from your dad, the food sent over by your neighbour, the beauty in the broken, the spirit in music, prayer in silence… all these seemingly insignificant moments become the purest of gold when you’re walking hell's path. And the beautiful thing about that is that after you come out of that valley, and you get to turn back on the hell you just walked through, you get to put the gold in your pocket and take it with you.

That’s grace.

Back in Part Two of this series I mentioned that the Hebrew word “Hereth,” which is the name of the forest/wasteland that David hid in when on the run from King Saul, shares the same letters as the word “Heruth,” which means “freedom.” In Hebrew, when two words look alike, they ARE alike and are linked in some way. And this is their link, that sometimes, in the harshest, hardest and barren seasons, comes breathtaking beauty, exquisite joy, and unexplainable peace. A gracious freedom.

“The grace of God means something like: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn’t have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid. I am with you.” – Frederick Buechner.

What treasures have you found (or can you find)? Leave us a comment below.

Go to Part 5 – Good News »

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