PastorKevinAustin

One of the most powerful images of darkness, tragedy and pain can be found in Psalm 23 … “the valley of the shadow of death”.  It is a terrifying place.  Most of us have been there.  Some of us have been there multiple times.  If you have been there, no doubt you still bear the scars.  If you haven’t yet been there, it’s a place you never want to have to go.  Unfortunately, life is very cold and cruel, and few, if any, escape the valley.

The valley of the shadow is not something you can see in the distance and plot a path around.  Sometimes, you can be on top of the world, on the mountain tops of life, and in a moment find yourself or someone you love crashing to the valley floor.  Surrounded by darkness.  You can’t find the way to go, or even see your next step.

Sometimes you find yourself in the valley after a long journey.  A slow, steady, almost imperceptible decline into the darkness.  At times along the way, you may see glimpses of light, breaks in the clouds, harbingers of hope.  There may be plateaus, but ever so slowly the decline continues.  Before you know it, you are there.

However you arrived, the valley of the shadow is the same once you’re there.  The darkness is oppressive, suffocating.  Pain and hopelessness, grief and death swirl around you, knocking you off your feet, filling you with a sense that this will be your life from now on.

But there is hope, even in the darkness.  Remember Psalm 23.  It says “though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death”.  As dark, foreboding and permanent the valley may feel, take heart because it is only temporary.  You will walk through it and you will eventually emerge into the light again.  Psalm 30 assures us that “weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.”  The valley of the shadow is painful and it is difficult, but you will never walk through it alone.  Christ will be beside you every step of the way.  He will support you, comfort you, pick you up when you fall and eventually bring you out of the shadows and into the light.  Amen.