I WALK THROUGH THE VALLEY
Psalms 23:4
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.
We were on the Cielo Vista Ranch on my 50th birthday and the rest of the guys in camp decided to bring me on an adventure... on horseback. Now I've ridden horses a fair number of times before and even did it once in the mountains, but never for more than an hour or two and never without a trail and never, ever, for 8 hours without a trail.
We left camp at 8,300 ft in elevation and started up through the mature aspens, winding our way up through the large trunks like a slalom skier dodging poles on a ski hill. We went up for about an hour for about 1,000 ft in elevation. It was easy and beautiful... that wouldn't last. We then headed back down into the North Vellejos Creek. We followed the creek up in a valley bottom that we wanted to explore. It was at that point that we left anything that would be called open timber and headed into a brush choked valley full of springs, mud holes, rock slides and elk wallows. There were huge limbs with sharp branches, hanging down from huge spruces growing from the valley floor. My cowboy hat was being ripped from my head and the spruce limbs were tearing the flesh from my arms.
I had wondered why all of the real cowboys had long sleeve shirts on that morning... I was now learning the answer to that question. We pushed through this miserable valley, doing my best not to be knocked off my horse's back. I was learning a lot about my horse in this tough place and even more about myself. It was a tough challenge to say the least. It would not have been my choice to spend my 50th birthday here, but God had a plan.
Eventually we broke from the valley into a beautiful basin, right below the 14,000 ft "Red Mountain" peak. We had climbed from 8,3000 ft to nearly 12,000 ft and it was worth the ride. The beauty was amazing and it was as if we were in God's lap at the base of that majestic peak. For a while it was the most peaceful place on earth.
In the scripture above, the psalmist didn't say, "if" I walk through the valley but, "even though I walk through the valley"... There WILL be valleys in life and some of those valleys will be deeper, dirtier and thicker than we think we can dig out of, but God has promised to bring us out of those valleys and back to the beautiful mountains where His glory shines.
The second half of verse 4 says, " I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.". We can rely on God to comfort and protect us in the valleys and darkness! I didn't know if I was going to make it through the North Vellejos Valley on my birthday. But I kept pushing forward, knowing that God had something better at the end of the struggle.
Aristotle Onassis once said
"It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.".
James 1:12 tells us that in order to get to the beautiful places we must push through the tough places.
"Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him."
Maybe you're struggling through a rough valley today, push forward. God has promised that when you come out of that struggle there will be beauty. We don't know His timing. We can't be sure of how deep or long that valley will be, but if we know Jesus Christ, we can rest assured that at the other end of the valley that we are pushing through, He will reveal beauty that made it all worthwhile.
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