I've decided to come back to this blog because, even though it's been rather a long time since I've posted on it, it's a bit of an old friend (plus, I just prefer Blogger to Wordpress), and the title is still apt.
Some adventures are filled with sunlight and amazing sights and joys. Some are about a 70/30 mix of brightness and shadow. Some are like walking through a dark valley, where the sun doesn't shine down very often. But I would describe them all as adventures, because they are all particular spans of time that begin and end, during which you are changed by the time you reach your destination.
That's basically what sanctification is: God leading us through meadows, forests, and valleys, so that, by the end of each journey, we will have a closer relationship with Him.
The dark valleys seem to be the journeys when God is removing the deeply rooted things in us that inhibit our deeper trust in and love of Him because they obscure our view of who He really is. When those things are gone, we see Him so much more clearly – the good, loving, compassionate, almighty God.
This is (at least part of, if not the meaning of) what God "work[ing] all things together for good" actually is.
All of that is my intro to say that I've been going through a valley, recently, as I walk with my mom through the treatment of the cancer attacking her. (If you'd like to follow the specifics of that journey, check out her CaringBridge.) And I thought I would use this platform, separately from our journey together, to share my personal experience.
It seemed as if roadblock after roadblock was coming up to prevent her from getting better, and I had a very hard time finding any light – or even find the time to look at the unquenchable light of God's word! Digging into the His word certainly seemed hard to do, if only because of time, not to mention the mental ability to concentrate.
Yet He is always so ready to pour comfort into you, even with the feeblest ability to open your eyes and look to Him. And that's what He did using Psalm 25 and Lamentations 3.
There have been a couple of mornings in the last week when I would wake up with what feels like a physical weight inside. Those were the days when I woke up pleading in prayer to my Father, and desperately opening up to Psalm 25 and to Lamentations. And grabbing on to the words like a life preserver!
All my mind could manage was to hold on to simple, yet profoundly true truths like these:
On You I wait all the day...
According to Your mercy remember me...
Good and upright is the Lord...
Turn Yourself to me, and have mercy on me,
For I am desolate and afflicted...
His compassions fail not...
Great is Your faithfulness...
He will show compassion according to the multitude of His mercies...
All I could do was stare at these words – these realities – and trust them.
It wasn't much, but it was so simple that I could remember it – remember these words through the darkness of that day and stand on them.
I hope these things will encourage you all, too! We Christians can get caught up in understanding the {beautiful, profound and powerful} finer points of Biblical truth, and I still say that there should be time for that in our lives, but even the most obvious truths in God's word do deeply change us when we grasp just how real they are – how real He is!
Here are the passages in their contexts (without which no truth should be understood):
Psalm 25
To You, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
2 O my God, I trust in You;
Let me not be ashamed;
Let not my enemies triumph over me.
3 Indeed, let no one who waits on You be ashamed;
Let those be ashamed who deal treacherously without cause.
4 Show me Your ways, O Lord;
Teach me Your paths.
5 Lead me in Your truth and teach me,
For You are the God of my salvation;
On You I wait all the day.
6 Remember, O Lord, Your tender mercies and Your lovingkindnesses,
For they are from of old.
7 Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions;
According to Your mercy remember me,
For Your goodness’ sake, O Lord.
8 Good and upright is the Lord;
Therefore He teaches sinners in the way.
9 The humble He guides in justice,
And the humble He teaches His way.
10 All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth,
To such as keep His covenant and His testimonies.
11 For Your name’s sake, O Lord,
Pardon my iniquity, for it is great.
12 Who is the man that fears the Lord?
Him shall He teach in the way He chooses.
13 He himself shall dwell in prosperity,
And his descendants shall inherit the earth.
14 The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him,
And He will show them His covenant.
15 My eyes are ever toward the Lord,
For He shall pluck my feet out of the net.
16 Turn Yourself to me, and have mercy on me,
For I am desolate and afflicted.
17 The troubles of my heart have enlarged;
Bring me out of my distresses!
18 Look on my affliction and my pain,
And forgive all my sins.
19 Consider my enemies, for they are many;
And they hate me with cruel hatred.
20 Keep my soul, and deliver me;
Let me not be ashamed, for I put my trust in You.
21 Let integrity and uprightness preserve me,
For I wait for You.
22 Redeem Israel, O God,
Out of all their troubles!
Lamentations 3:21-33
21 This I recall to my mind,
Therefore I have hope.
22 Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
23 They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I hope in Him!”
25 The Lord is good to those who wait for Him,
To the soul who seeks Him.
26 It is good that one should hope and wait quietly
For the salvation of the Lord.
27 It is good for a man to bear
The yoke in his youth.
28 Let him sit alone and keep silent,
Because God has laid it on him;
29 Let him put his mouth in the dust—
There may yet be hope.
30 Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him,
And be full of reproach.
31 For the Lord will not cast off forever.
32 Though He causes grief,
Yet He will show compassion
According to the multitude of His mercies.
33 For He does not afflict willingly,
Nor grieve the children of men.
