10.  Learning to Love The Valleys

Regardless of who is responsible for the many valleys of our lives, I believe it is God who gets us through them.  As we stumble, grope, and fall along the way, God leads us out of the valleys into the sunlight.  It has taken most of my life, and many of my own valleys, to appreciate them because of their lessons and challenges.  I’m still learning how to totally trust God, immediately, when a valley begins.  I knew how to be grateful when I left one of these dark times, to recognize that God was with me throughout, but I now try to acknowledge God’s presence in the midst of troubled times, in the deepest, darkest suffering of a valley, in the suffering.

I think of all the lessons learned from each valley, while the lilies of those valleys were reminding me of God’s presence.  It has taken me many years to know enough to trust that I’ll see those lilies in the shadows, just as I did in my childhood, in the dark soil next to our house.  Now I look back on those childhood moments spent with those sweet little bell-shaped flowers as prophetic and, eventually, autobiographical. 

Today, when things are going wrong, I try to take a quiet moment in the midst of confusion, tears, trauma, frustrations, and pain, to picture a Lily of the Valley in my mind.  That reminds me to surrender all to God, to let God lead me, to remember that God is always with me, even when it doesn’t feel like it.

It’s always so glorious to stand on a mountaintop and feel exhilarated by the majesty and power of God, and to rejoice in the goodness and infinite love of God!  I find it even more awesome to experience those same feelings and recognize the same majesty and power of God while in the dark abysses of life.  To feel the faithful loving embrace of God in those low places is what lifts me up and keeps me going.       

The End.

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