Sun-flare

The sun is rising on yet another brand new day. Its flares spread out right across the valley. I have been thinking about how our world is made up of mountains and valleys even beneath the oceans. Some of those mountains are very high and the valleys can be very deep.

My life has always been a series of Mountain experiences followed by long walks in valleys, some have been broad and wide others have been deep and rough going.

We are taught to be afraid and ashamed of depression, stress and sadness but they are a part of the valleys that we have to walk through. I know there are certain types that need professional intervention in the form of medication or counselling but I have decided that for me today, a tough day, I am going to be proud of the situation. God loves me and has a lesson for me today.

I am going to remember that I have taken care of my body enough to know that this is not a deficiency of some mineral or vitamin. It is not about a lack of spiritual faith. It is most likely about making me more aware of how others might feel and trying to understand that God wants me to be able to relate to them in a very small way. I have not walked in their shoes so I can never fully understand their pain but I can get it, that life is not fair, that those valleys can be long and seem to take forever to get through.

God allows us to have some mountain experiences to help us see that the world is much bigger than the valleys we walk through but they are usually short stays. For those of us who are walking in valleys of despair, sadness or not feeling up to par it can be hard to see those flares of God’s love reaching out to us. The temptation is for us to want to stay on top of the mountains and avoid the reality of our world. That reality is very grim at present. We are not alone in this. Peter wanted to stay on the mountain at the transfiguration (Matthew 17) so we are all in good company.

Let us all look up, see the sun shining down on us and if the clouds are covering it, let’s just remember that God has not failed us but is strengthen our faith in Him.