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Darkest Valley


          Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. (Psalm 23:4)

         Most of us fear the valley of the shadow of death, to use the King James Version description. As a woman, I’ve been taught that I need to be afraid to walk down the street at night all alone. Around the globe, we’re being told to fear the Wuhan virus, and every person we meet because he/she might have it and not know. According to The Coddling of the American Mind, our I-Gen (the generation after the Millennials) kids are being taught to fear anything that makes them uncomfortable. There’s a whole lot of shaking goin’ on.
           And it seems that a large part of our population has the idea that we should not have to go through darkest valleys. God and/or the government should protect us from darkest valleys, and make everything all better, or else we’ll disown him and find a god who bows to our dictates.
So, what does this part of a beloved song tell us? Nothing we want to hear. It tells us that we can expect to walk through the darkest valleys. We aren’t exempt. It isn’t that we will face no evil. There will be wolves. We can pretty much count on it.
           But God. God is with us. God has a rod with which he can keep the wolves from killing us, and he has a staff with which he can move us to where he wants us to be. His use of both com(with)-forts(strengthens) us. They may not make us feel better, but they give us the courage to keep walking. It is not that we no longer feel any fear. David didn’t say “I feel no fear.” He said I will not fear. It’s about the will, it’s about making a choice about how we are going to live as we walk through this valley.
          The truth is that we may well die in one of those darkest valleys, but we can either spend all our time focusing on that possibility, or we can enjoy the blessing that the darkest valley provides – the presence of the Shepherd.

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