The Holidays and Life

The holidays and end of year is upon us. This has been an unusual year for our family. We've had some glorious times. However, this has also been a very difficult and challenging year as well.


Life can be glorious. Life can be hard. I think of our first Thanksgiving and Christmas without our son. They say the firsts are always the hardest, but I would question that. I recall Thanksgiving the second year as being almost too much to bear. This will be our eleventh season without our son.


This morning I was reading Psalm 84. "How blessed are those who make Your house their home, who live with You; they are constantly praising You. Blessed are those who make You their strength, tor they treasure every step of the journey (to Zion). On their way through the valley of Baca (weeping) they stop and dig wells to collect the refreshing spring water, and the early rains fill the pools. They journey from place to place, gaining strength along the way; until they meet God in Zion."


Did you notice how blessed one is whose strength is drawn from the Lord, who dwell with Him, who walk through the valley (not around it, through it)? They are the ones who find refreshment. Refreshment: "The process of being rested and regaining strength or energy." It doesn't just happen. We must dwell with the Lord.


The valley of weeping is that place of anguish, loneliness, heartache, loss, that we experience as we go through this pilgrimage of life. Some seasons are harder than others and completely exhausts us to walk through them.


I want to encourage your heart as one who has walked and is walking and will continue, Lord willing, to walk through the valley, to keep walking!


Those verses promise the blessing of strength when we remain in fellowship with our Lord. Draw from His well. How do we do that? Stay in His Word - keep reading it. Pour out your heart to Him.  Listen: Jesus was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. He knows your pain, your heartache.


Our difficult days will find fresh springs of living, life giving water through Jesus. The first part of this chapter talks of yearning, even fainting and crying out for the living God. Desperation should lead us to the living God. Also, when you are in the difficult valley, don't waste it. Use it. Help someone else going through a difficulty. They need encouragement and comfort too.


Let me encourage you today through the words of Scripture. God is your Strength, your Refuge, your Helper through the holidays and in the year to come. Whatever it may bring, "Blessed is the one who trusts in You: (Psalm 84:12)