Walking Through the Valley

[HKHaugan]

For our Heavenly Father it was the ultimate sacrifice to allow the most precious relationship He had to live in human flesh, to localize Himself in the heart, mind and body of limiting human experience. Jesus began His human life in the valley. He had to live among people who wouldn’t recognize Him, who would rebuke Him, mistreat Him and finally kill Him. It was a life to be lived in the midst of everyday pride, fear, sickness, hate, cruelty and violence. It was a life to be lived alone yet shared with a small band of followers who were given the ability to see Him as He revealed Himself moment by moment, day by day, in a series of encounters not only with them but with the sick, the dying, the lost, the poor in spirit and all those who hunger for right and purpose and meaning. As He lived He showed the path was one of faith in His Father in every next moment, something no other human being had ever been capable of. But even that small band, in whom He poured His life, deserted Him when the chips were down.

The question for each of us is this: “What did the Lord Jesus teach me?” When I applied that question to myself I found He taught me I had three basic needs, the need for His Word, Scripture, the need to be right and the need for a spiritual rebirth.

First, He taught me to head for the Scriptures before I did anything else because there He’d show me exactly who He is and why He came. This is where I found the nub of my internal struggle. As I look back the one word that sums it all up is temptation and that’s because Jesus showed me that temptation is the first valley (Mt.4:1-11). That is the valley of the shadow and that the valley has a shadower, the devil, the father of lies, the tempter. He is always there presenting the temptation to take control, the temptation to rationalize and compromise thought and action and the temptation to “lean unto my own understanding (Prov.3:5)” to make everything about me.

Here is the difference between Jesus and me.

Jesus just rebuked the devil immediately without hesitation. He was filled with the Holy Spirit and I wasn’t. I had to yield but I didn’t yield all at once and I still have to yield every day (Thank you Paul). The Lord wanted me to open my mind to believe the way He believes, open up my heart to trust like He trusts and to have faith to act like He acts in faith---every next moment and every next step.

Second, He taught me what my deepest need was, the need to be right. It’s the need to be right that exposes my real condition---aloneness---without God I am totally alone. Because of aloneness we turn inward and find we are in a survival mode. So for some their aloneness may emphasize their need for love, acceptance or understanding or just being understood. For me it was absolutely necessary to be right in how I looked, how I felt about myself, how I fit in wherever I was, how I maneuvered among the ‘elite’ classes, the intellectuals, the ‘hip’ characters and the ‘religious’ authorities. It was all about me earning my ‘right’ to co-exist in a subtly hostile world. You might say I was suffering from a kind of socio-psycho-spiritual paranoia which is a fancy way of saying I am a sinner. I could identify with David who said his sin was ever before him (Ps.51:3).

There in Scripture, when I saw the Lord Jesus in the wilderness tempted by the devil (Mt.4), I knew what sin was and that I had no control over it. Unlike me Jesus instantaneously reacted by rejecting the devil’s offerings and He did it so naturally. I have to ponder, do the ‘what if’ thing and ask for the inner resolve to do things His way. He was sinless, He didn’t have to ponder. He really was His Father’s Son. He really was a man of His Word. He really was always that way. He really was always more concerned about His Father’s wishes than His own (Jn.7:18).

Here’s where I discovered Paul’s own inner struggle was the same as mine. He verbalized it so clearly when he said how wretched he was because the good he wanted to do he couldn’t and the evil he hated he found himself doing at which point he threw himself before the Lord in thankful submission for Jesus’ forgiveness and acceptance (Rom.7:7-25). Paul found that in Jesus there was no condemnation (Jn.3:18). He could have gotten into self-pity and built strongholds to put blame on the world and other people in it or turn to religion as a potion, but no, that was not his out. He found that faith in Jesus Christ, the Non-Condemner, the Acceptor, the Forgiver, the Savior, was His salvation. That’s where it started for me.

Third, the Lord Jesus taught me I had to be reborn; born from above, born a second time, born again spiritually (Jn.3). Yes, my first birth gave me a physical body with self-consciousness, intellect, emotion and a spiritual awareness but not a spiritual birth from God. I had a mind, a heart and a spirit but I was an image of God without a spiritual tie to Him. I was not a child of God. I had been born separated from Him by sin. All the parts were there but disconnected, not working together, not harmonized in the way they were intended, not balanced the way they were in Jesus. I needed His Spirit to birth me anew in order to put me together, a project by the way, still under construction. And John told me that the reason Jesus came was to undo the work of the devil (1Jn.3:8). This is exactly what He is doing in me through the Holy Spirit.

He is teaching me a whole lot more. Next time the 'more.'

[Karen McMahon]

Oh, boy.  I can't wait.  As a child I remember watching a movie on TV that was about the French revolution, and I was inspired by it in some way.  It didn't show any beheadings, of course, so I didn't know about all of that stuff.   Looking forward to more and well portrayed historical context.  Thanks again, Whitey.

[HKHaugan]

Thank you Karen.  All of us have our valleys but the One who lights them up never leaves us.  By the way about Les Mis characters that die.  Two leads do, the first Jean val Jean dies as an older man and his death is wonderfully portrayed.  The second, Jauvert the policeman who pursues him, finds he can't handle the effect of the transformed life of Jean val Jean and jumps from a bridge.   A third, Fantine is also transformed but dies young as a result of sickness but Jean val Jean raises her daughter.  Also the context is the French Revolution and it was a tumultuous time which I think was done very well by the script writers.  As I said it was a truly uplifting piece of the Gospel ast work.  ><>W

[Karen McMahon]

I have been very much in the shadow of death in the valley particularly for the past year.  I just want to mention that one can be stalked by one's feelings of, "Surely I could have prevented this."  Blaming oneself is another way that one can react to this inner struggle.  This clearly is my primary lesson, or rather, my primary barrier that needs to be removed.  I am so grateful, as you point out, that this is a process, however painful, and one that I know my Lord will take me through.  :)