Finding Peace in the Valley

Valleys tend to get bad press as dark and foreboding. The mountain, on the other hand, has such good publicity, with its potential riches, fame, and accolades, that people who haven’t even started climbing can’t wait to get to the top. But since the valley tends to come with negative connotations, it is much more difficult to convince a climber to visit it.

Stress, anxiety, and pressure gnaw at the bones of the climber. Isolation, lack of spiritual sustenance, and the fear of falling choke us. Still, for many of us, that agony beats pausing, simplifying, and living outside of the grind, even for an hour, a day, or a season.

Forsaking the grind and spending time in the valley may sound scary, counterproductive, or even like you’re admitting defeat. But the way I see it, the valley has everything the climber’s soul has been longing for—everything the mountain doesn’t have.

For one, the rigors of the mountain don’t allow for much intimacy. When you and everyone around you is climbing—and therefore operating at the fringes of their ability—there is less time to exchange fears, wisdom, joys, and sorrows. The valley is beautifully distinct, as it’s there that God provides a different, healthy type of healing, community, and intimacy, often through people during intentional, focused time away from the grind.

The valley is normally bustling with life because it is bustling with the elements that give life. It provides the life-giving words, the faith-fortifying conversations, and the mind-changing moments that can only be discovered in God’s presence. Sound theology lets us know that God is always with us and we will never leave his presence, even on the mountain. David opined of the Lord in Psalm 139:8, “If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.”

The valley is not about finishing anything, studying anything, or doing anything, but simply being a child of God. There is shedding of trauma, renewing of identity, humbling, de-stressing, and a river of God’s recharging presence. The valley is for the climber’s health. It feeds our souls and increases our peace.

Thank you, God, for the life-giving blessings you have waiting for me in the valley today. As I climb down, please meet my spirit, soul, and body with the good things it needs in Your presence. Amen.