In Shadow's Valley
It's 10:30 at night and I get a text from a friend several states away, asking for prayer for her ailing father. She sits in the hospital with him, waiting for answers and wrestling with her tired faith, wondering when the constant stream of doctors visits, surgeries, care-giving, hurting will end... not just for her father, but for her mother, too. She is weary, and I can sense it in her messages. She needs someone to sit with her in this. And I gladly do. Because I've been there. As we exchange texts and I try to infuse her bowed-over spirit with some level of hope and comfort, the thought occurs to me that that "valley of the shadow" the familiar Psalm speaks of comes for all of us more than we'd like. Somehow, we think we can avoid it. We want to steer clear of the darkness, the doubts, the fears, the suffering and stay where it's easy and comfortable. Yet, the truth is that without it, there is no faith, no growth, no redemption. Without a cross, ther...
