Introspection: God of the Valley

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

God of the Valley

Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.

Psalm 139:7-8 (NKJV)

So let's go there

Let's make our escape

Come on, let's go there

Let's ask, "Can we stay?"

From "Higher" by Creed

Some of my happiest experiences during my college years and the years immediately afterward were the retreats I attended with the Wesley Fellowship, the United Methodist group at my alma mater.  These retreats gave me the opportunity to put aside the cares of my life and to simply enjoy some time with my friends.  On the last day of one retreat, right before we went home, my friend, the campus minister, read a particular story about Jesus.

One day, Jesus and three of His disciples hiked up a mountain to pray.  While Jesus was praying, He took on a heavenly appearance: His face changed, and His clothes turned brilliantly white.  Suddenly, Moses and Elijah, two important figures from Jewish history, appeared and started talking with Him.  It was a vision of Heaven.¹

Always the first to speak up, the disciple Peter made an odd suggestion.  He said, "Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."  The Bible tells us that Peter was babbling because he was so awestruck by what he saw.  The campus minister suggested that perhaps what Peter was really trying to say was, "Let's all stay up here."  Perhaps Peter didn't want this brief intersection between Heaven and Earth to end.

It was a fitting passage to ponder at the end of a "mountaintop" experience like a retreat.

Sometimes we grow weary of the trials and tribulations life brings us, so we pursue a transcendent God - a God "up there," high above the world and the chaos that inhabits it.  We seek mountaintop experiences in order to connect with the God "up there."  Often churches work to facilitate such experiences through retreats and emotional worship services so that we might feel as though we are close to God.  Mountaintop experiences are wonderful, but the bad thing about them is the fact that they can be few and far between.  Furthermore, mountaintop feelings are unsustainable: inevitably we have to come down from the mountain and enter the valley.

On one Sunday evening, after I had returned home from a another retreat, I experienced a rather brutal comedown as I began to anticipate returning to work the next day at a job I hated.  I didn't hate my job when I first accepted it, but what began as a lingering shame for working in a corrupt industry had mutated into a hellish mixture of anxiety, belligerence, and despair that had all but taken over my life.²

One of the most well-known and cherished parts of the Bible is the Twenty-third Psalm, the poem that begins with those beloved words, "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want."  The psalmist David begins this psalm with imagery of "green pastures" and "still waters," but the psalm soon begins to take on a darker tone.  David writes, "Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for You are with me."  Some versions of the Bible refer to the "darkest valley" as "the valley of the shadow of death."  David then writes, "You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies."³

I have known this passage of Scripture ever since I was a child, but what strikes me about this psalm nowadays is the fact that David acknowledges God's presence with him in both the good times and in the bad times - on the mountaintops and in the valleys.  He knows that God will not shield him from the dark valleys of life.  He knows that God will not kill all of his enemies and eliminate all of his problems for him.  Still, David knows that God is with him in the midst of it all.  He knows that God's presence does not depend on his circumstances or his feelings.  He knows that God is with him whether he is walking by a peaceful stream or walking through a valley as dark as death itself.

David realizes that the God of the mountaintop is also the God of the valley.

If you attend a more traditional church, you might witness an acolyte bringing in a flame to light the candles at the front of the sanctuary at the beginning of the service.  The flame is a reminder that God is present in the midst of the worship service.  At the end of the service, the acolyte will extinguish the candles and take the flame out of the sanctuary.  This action reminds us that the presence of God is not confined to the church building and that God is leading us out of the safety of the sanctuary and back into the world.

Perhaps we cannot truly encounter God by constantly retreating to our proverbial mountaintops.  If our relationship with God depends on our feelings, then our faith is nothing but a house built on a foundation of sand.  Perhaps it is only when we confront and embrace the fullness of life's journey - both the mountaintops and the valleys - that we truly encounter God.  God is not "up there," far removed from the difficulties of life: God is "down here" with us in the midst of them.  So often, when we pray to God for help, we pray that God would take away the storms of our lives.  Perhaps we should instead pray for the strength to weather the storms.

I have faced a number of valleys in my life, and, had I known these valleys lay ahead of me, I probably would have taken a detour.  It is only when I look back on these times of trial that I realize that God was with me the whole time and that God was even bringing something good out of these trials.  Wherever you are right now, whether you are on a mountaintop or in a valley, I pray that you realize that God is with you, regardless of how you feel.


Notes:

1. Luke 6:28-36 (NRSV)
   The story of the Transfiguration can also be found at Matthew 17:1-8 and Mark 9:2-8.
2. What happened that evening is described in my early introspection "Praying Outward."
3. Quotations from Psalm 23 were taken from the New Revised Standard Version and the King James Version.  Italics were added for emphasis.

The image featured in this introspection is public domain.