Finding still waters

St. Augustine said, “the hills drive back the water, but the valley is filled by it.”

We really don’t like living in the low points of life.  We would prefer to live on the mountaintop; we would rather constantly experience the high moments of life.   But have you ever noticed that you never find a lake on the side of a mountain?  You can never find the quiet waters on a cliff face.  When David wrote, “He leads me beside still waters”, he was operating on the presumption that he was in the valley.

It is in the low points of life that we grow the most.  As much as we may love the emotional high we get in a mountain top experience, that is not where our faith grows.  Our faith grows in the fertile soil of the lowlands.  In the low lands the sunrise is later and shadows of the evening come sooner. In the valley there is more darkness, the nights seem longer and at times colder.  In the valley we may not experience the refreshing breeze, and the humidity seems to linger; it is not the pleasant place of the mountaintop with its cool air and fresh breeze.  Uncle Screwtape explained to his nephew Wormwood the Law of Undulation.  Our Heavenly Father allows His dear children to go through low points or troughs so they will love Him more deeply and love Him for himself.  Screwtape points out that God’s most beloved children experienced some of the longest low points.

My natural reaction is to want to get out of the valley, to constantly be trying to find some mountain to climb, to even generate a false emotional high over things trivial just to get away from the valley.   Last night, as I fell asleep, my mind was tumbling over thoughts about a ministry and how it could work.  I rolled around ideas of this tool working to reach these people.  What a great joy it would be to do this, or that or another thing.  I don’t suppose it is evil to ‘day dream’ about ministry.  But maybe it is not the best thing to do.

Instead, perhaps I need to look for the deep waters that gather in the valley, to drink deeply of the waters of life, to find the still waters and lie down and rest there and listen for the Shepherd’s voice.  Maybe the best thing to do is to look around the valley, see it for what it is, and try to discern what the Shepherd wants to teach me.  

This past Saturday at about noon we buried my father-in-law; a few hours later my first cousin passed away.  For these and for a few other reasons this moment seems to be a valley for me.  My prayer at the moment is not that God will take me to a joyous mountaintop.  My prayer is that I will in this moment enjoy His presence, learn His lessons, and drink deeply from the pool of water that has gathered in this valley.