The Valley. Part II: Vision and Paradox

If the story ended with deafening emptiness of silence, all would be lost; but God is more faithful to me than I am to my sin.

As I began to question the Almighty, I was painfully reminded of God's response to Job after he poured out his complaint before the Lord:

"'Who is this that darkens counsel
By words without knowledge?
Now gird up your loins like a man,
And I will ask you, and you instruct me!
Where were you when I...'" (Job 38:1-4a emphasis mine)

Where was I when God laid the foundations of the earth? Where was I when the morning stars sang together with all the angels at the glorious dawn of Creation? Where was I when God spoke the sun into existence and its triumphant brilliance burst through the darkness of nothingness? Where was I when the imaginative Creator fashioned Man after His own likeness and declared the undeniable excellence of His masterpiece? Where was I when this same God stepped down into the realm of His own Creation and took on flesh to bear the penalty for my sin? Where was I, where was I?

It's interesting to note that God never answered Job's questions of "why" God did what he did. He only had to give Job but a shadowy glimpse of His character for Job to fall on his face and repent in dust and ashes.

It is here that we find the purpose for the Valley in our lives, for it is in the desolate emptiness and barren wasteland of adversity that God reveals Himself most to us. The Valley becomes the place of Vision.

The Puritans understood this fundamental reality:

Lord, High and Holy, Meek and Lowly,
Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision,

where I live in the depths but see thee in the heights;
hemmed by mountains of sin I behold thy glory.

Let me learn by paradox

that the way down is the way up,
that to be low is to be high,
that the broken heart is the healed heart,
that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,
that the repenting soul is the victorious soul,
that to have nothing is to possess all,
that to bear the cross is to wear the crown,
that to give is to receive,
that the valley is the place of vision.

Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells,
and the deeper the wells, the brighter thy stars shin;
Let me find

thy light in my darkness,
thy life in my death,
thy joy in my sorrow,
thy grace in my sin,
thy riches in my poverty,
thy glory in my valley.

Though I stumble through the valley of uncertainty and despair, I am reminded by the psalmist to lift my eyes up to the one who holds things together by the Word of His power:

"I will lift up my eyes to the mountains
From where shall my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth." (Psalm 121:1-2)

I do not know how far I have to go or how long I have to wait, but I do know that I will walk through the Valley, if He wants me to.

And as I wait patiently on the Lord and earnestly yearn for His salvation and redemption, I prepare for the inebriating moment of liberation.

I prepare for...