Lessons from the valley - Don't Give Up!

I want to predicate this entry by saying I haven't completely worked through all of this, but God gave it to me today and I wanted to share it with you.

In the midst of the valley you cannot give up!

This is a big one for me. So many times in ministry I have wanted to run, not for just a day, but for good. I was tired, worn out, and didn't want to do it anymore. But I stayed. Only, and I repeat only, because God would not let me leave. I know the whole "I have a choice" thing, but if I was intent on being obedient to God, then obedience meant staying, regardless of how I felt. So I know a little about giving up and going on.

Today, I watched someone else keep going. Karen, my wife who is suffering from cancer, kept going (see A Little Clarification below). I came home from the church and was getting some lunch when she began experiencing incredible pain. I'm talking probably a 15 on a scale of 1-10. As we were trying to get her pain and nausea under control she began walking through the house. I walked alongside her, rubbing her back and helping in the most helpless of ways. During one the rounds through the house Karen told me, "I'm tired of suffering." All I could do was hug her, hold her, and cry along with her. But after a moment she turned began walking again and praying. Have you ever heard someone litterally cried out to God? She wasn't speaking just words. She was pouring her heart out to God. Not as if, but because her very life and the quality of her life depends on Him. She was literally crying out to God as she walked. How she kept going in the midst of such passionate prayers I do not know.

Her prayers, not just the words, but the emotion and the heart behind them reminded me of Jesus' prayer in the Garden of Gesthemene. Here was a man who was about to enter the greatest valley of the entire history of humanity. He would endure suffering as we have never known it. In the Garden Jesus prayed with passion and emotion. So much so the Bible says that his sweat was like drops of blood. He kept going.

As the story unfolds we find Jesus in the midst of the valley. He was mocked, beaten, tortured - he suffered, but he kept on going. At any moment he could have called it all off, but he didn't. He and Karen kept on going. And am I glad.

I'm not trying to equate Karen and Jesus, except for the willingness to undure suffering to move forward through the valley to the next mountain top.

Jesus now sits on the greatest mountain top of all - the throne of heaven. Karen will one day stand on her mountain top - right alongside Him.

If you're in the midst of your own valley, don't give up. Jesus didn't, Karen hasn't, and don't you either.