Out of the Valley

The past few months have been rough. There have been a ton of things going on in ministry, at church, in life, and personally. It's been a struggle, and most days I hadn't had much energy. Motivation was low, passions became apathetic, each day was a struggle, but very few people knew.

Sunday was incredible. This past weekend the youth group I work with did 30 hour famine. It was a great weekend. Sunday I team preached with a teen from the church. We did Luke 8.40-56, The healing of the bleeding woman, and the raising of Jairus' daughter. I told the story through the eyes of Jairus in the past tense, and she did the story of the woman in the present tense. It was amazing.

That who service was incredible, after the sermon I shared about our famine, about the 25,000 children who will die today, but I didn't focus on the despair, because Jesus doesn't. Everything in the service pointed to hope and to life. The sermon we preached started in despair, but moved to hope and then to life. All of the music focused on hope.

Monday came, I sent my weekly text to my brothers, and one asked how he could pray for me. My response, "Pray for the valley I'm probably about to go through." My thinking was that I had just experienced an incredible move of God during church the previous day. But talking to a youth pastor friend that evening I shared that comment with her and she said, "No Bill, you just got out of the valley."

The entire service was filled with hope, but not just a hope I was telling people about, a hope I was trying to bring to 25,000 children, it was a hope that I was supposed to experience. It was about life that I was supposed to live.

Over the last few days life has been good. I have passion and energy again, things are working out, and I see God moving. Sometimes it takes the valleys to help us see where God is using us, and how he is working in our lives. Sometimes it takes the valley to help you move on from something you thought was perfect, sometimes it takes the valley to show you that God really does know what is best.

But the thing is the valley doesn't last forever. And even when everything seems to fall apart, I can remember that I am a little boy in my Daddy's arms. And there is nothing a Daddy loves more than holding his child.