Story Month: In considering what to share, I quickly thought of the struggles I have had in my life and how I have been drawn closer to God as I have walked through them. When deaths, breakups, moves, etc occur in life, and we walk through them, we often share a formula of the process. I once struggled with problem x but God helped me through it and the problem is solved. I like those kinds of stories and testimonies; I think we all do.

However, with each struggle, death, breakup, move, etc. there is a middle section that had to be traversed. Often this is left out of the sharing. Currently, I am walking through one of those middle sections. This season of my life is not a crowd pleaser, or at least it isn’t pleasing to me, but I have learned two things from this part of the walk

  1. There is just as much significance in walking through the valley of the shadow of death as there is in reaching the other side and experiencing God’s blessing encompassed by goodness and mercy.
  2. Sharing as you are going through the valley, not just when you have reached the other side, has the capacity to create a community amidst the chaos.

I believe this could be summarized by saying that a Christians walk is just that, a walk, a progression of steps, some easy some difficult that eventually lead us to the next step.