This has been heavy on my heart today and I genuinely felt like I had to write on it. This is going to be a darker post, so be forewarned.
Lately, I have noticed quite a bit of pain being felt around me. It might be a temporary pain or it might be a deep pain that cuts to the core. In my last two blog posts, I talked about how when we go through pain, we are not alone. In a way, this is basically the same message, but I am trying to hit it from a different angle.
"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me." Psalm 23:4
This verse is so incredibly powerful. It doesn't say "If I walk through the valley of the shadow of death," it says "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death." I can't help but think that this is a promise that we will walk through this valley. It's not a matter of "if" but "when."
What exactly is "the valley of the shadow of death?" Well, I believe it is any hardship we face that utterly rocks our world. It shakes our faith in God, people, and in ourselves. It makes us question anything and everything we have ever known to be true. It is a place where we have to live, but question why we are even here.
It can be anything from the death of a child, a miscarriage, a divorce, a suicide of someone we love, a bad break-up, the loss of a job, or anything else really that we treasure and value that we suddenly lose.
Earlier this year, my family walked through a time that I think I, personally, can say was the "valley of the shadow of death." It rocked my world, my beliefs, and made me question God and everything I knew to be right and true. In this time, I felt there was no hope. I felt that nothing would ever be right again. I even wondered how the world could dare keep spinning under the weight of the pain I felt. I felt hopeless and broken. I didn't know what to do or who to turn to.
Unless you have felt this kind of pain, you really are lost at this point. It is such a brokenness and pain that words honestly cannot begin to describe accurately.
Yes, I was in the "valley of the shadow of death" and I know many people who have been here and are here. However, the verse does not end there! If it did, there would be no hope. There is a promise: "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me."
This is a promise that I clung to and that you can cling to too. Yes, we will face trials that rock our worlds, but He IS with us!
You know, I hear so many people paint God as someone who expects perfection out of us. I am not going to say that He does not desire us to desire to be like Him, but we also must realize that we serve a God who wants us to be real. He already sees beyond the fluff and pretty stuff we show everyone. He sees beyond the brave faces. He sees the silent pain we bear that can feel like it rips our heart in two. He sees the numerous tears we shed, seen and unseen by others. He wants us to choose to come to Him for comfort and to be real.
Only in His comfort can we find hope to get up again.....to live.....to even keep breathing. The only thing stronger than fear and pain, is hope. This world is temporary and gives temporary pleasures and hopes, but in Him we can find a lasting hope that will get us through. Will it lesson the pain? Not necessarily, but it will help us keep going.
Is that not a hope we desire? Is that not a hope we can lean on and fall on? Is that not a hope worth having?
In conclusion, I will leave ya'll with this verse from Matthew 11:28-29, "Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”
All you have to do is come and He will do the rest....
"You Never Let Go" by Jeremy Camp
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