Down in the Valley

It’s a little hazy down there. It’s a little hard to pick out much detail. The view from up here is lovely, but it’s a little Indistinct.

Have you ever been to the mountains? It doesn’t really matter which ones. It’s something you’ll never forget. You feel like you can see forever. When you’re up on a mountain you are able to see literally for miles and miles and miles! But the higher up you go, the less detail you are going to be able to see below. If you really want to know what’s down in the valley, you’re going to have to go down into the valley to find out. There’s also this; what goes up, must come down.

I’ve crossed quite a few mountain ranges in my life. And for a time, many years ago, I lived in Hollywood California. Nothing was better than a hike up into the Hollywood ‘hills’ and Griffith Park. When you got to the top, LA was on one side and the Burbank valley was on the other. I loved to stay and watch the sun set over LA. At the end of the day, though, I always knew I’d have to hike back down in the dark.

Every mountain top experience is preceded, and followed, by a trip into the valley. You really don’t know what’s going to be in the next valley until you get there. You glean as much as you can while you’re on the mountain, but as we’ve all seen, the reality is waiting for you at the bottom.

A hike up a mountain is usually a glorious one day trip, but you never know how long you might have to stay in the valley. It could be for only a day. More than likely, it will be much longer. It’s not the length of time that matters though. It’s what you do with it. If you spend your days pining away, thinking about how wonderful it was on the last mountain, you won’t be very effective where you are now.

Truth be known, we spend most of our time in the valley. No it’s not because you messed up on the last mountain. It’s because this is where you’re needed. We need to bring the beauty, strength, vision and Glory down with us. We need to shine the light from on high down into the lowest places. That’s why you were on the mountain in the first place. It wasn’t to give you goose-bumps. It was so you could be a carrier of all that you were given. That you, in return, would become the giver.

Some of us, maybe most of us, are in our own ‘valley’ of sorts right now. I know I am. Let’s make the most of our time here. You may have an encounter with God on the mountain, but you will best serve Him in the valley.