As We Walk Through the Valley

A friend recently raised a discussion about 2009: If you had the choice, would you do it all over again, just the way it was? Or, are you just glad to be rid of it?

The question runs deep. As Christians, we are promised trials in this world, and we can rest in the promise that our Savior has overcome the world (John 16:33). And though we may believe the truth in that verse, though we may have intellectually assented to the truth in that verse, the hurt and pain resulting from the trials we face is not necessarily diminished. We know what it means to feel sorrow in the loss of a loved one, heartache from a rift with a friend, fear in the face of the unknown.

As a result, then, the question immediately made me think of three things. The first, a quote from Ravi Zacharias, in The Grand Weaver:

"You cannot always live on the mountaintop, but when you walk through the valley, the memory of the view from the mountain will sustain you and give you the strength to carry you through."*

The second, a beautiful song I came to know through a friend of mine, by singer/songwriter Ginny Owens. Here's a live performance and a stanza or two:

It may not be the way I would have chosen

When You lead me through a world that's not my home,

But You never said it would be easy

You only said I'll never go alone.

So when the whole world turns against me

And I'm all by myself

And I can't hear You answer my cries for help.

I'll remember the suffering Your love put You through

And I will go through the valley

If you want me to.

The third, a favorite psalm of mine, also highlighted in The Sound of Music. I'm using the KJV, just because I like the poetry of it:

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills,

from whence cometh my help.

My help cometh from the LORD,

which made heaven and earth.

Psalm 121:1-2

A friend and I once talked about this verse, and he pointed out that the very fact the psalmist needs to lift up his eyes means that while in the valley, he had been looking down, away from the Lord.

At the very least, we know this: In His grace, God reveals to us that the grief we suffer in our trials may prove our faith genuine and result in praise and glory to Jesus Christ (I Peter 1:6-7). The thing is, we're never going to be able to escape the valleys in life. That we know.

But what mercy the Lord shows us in that we'll never go alone.

Zacaharias, Ravi. The Grand Weaver. Grand Rapids, 2007. pg. 41