When Sorrow Invites the Shadowy Valley of God

Omnipresence is the quality of God that suggests he is present, eternally, everywhere, at the same time. God is ubiquitous. Never, ever is God absent, so far as our living domain is concerned. And it may also be true – by our experience (and it has certainly been my experience) – that God is ever more present in the shadow of the valley of pitch darkness. That gives each one of us such comfort.

When we are there, in our silent loneliness, in the grips of abysmal anguish, when there is no hope, we ought to remind ourselves:

“So, let go my soul, and trust in Him; the waves and wind still know His name.”

— Kristene DiMarco, It Is Well (Bethel)

All sources of fear, despair, anguish, and grief are subject to quelling, because of the Lord. None of these issues of pain are beyond the faculties of the grace that saves us. None of the foreboding influence in the “waves and wind” will hold us apart from the Presence of the Lord, manifest in the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit abides in and through the prayers of the humble hurting. This Divine Spirit holds together the threads of our lives as we bear the impossibly horrendous moment.

Even in the midst of thought for ending it all – yes, suicide – when all hopes for finding hope are vanquished – and all energy is sapped – there is the therapeutic whisper of the living Spirit; when we reach out in belief that he is there.

Faith suggests we know God is right there, in our very midst.

It is no mere fabrication, because God ‘shows up’ when we acknowledge he is there; faith reconciles the experience of God.

But, we must remember, it was sorrow that got us to bend toward God in the first place. We are much more readily able to receive the Presence of the living God when we need him; when we are desperately lonely and sorrowful beyond words.

The Shadowy Valley of God is a generously safe and healing place. It is a place where we come before the cherished security of God, broken and fallen away from all joy and peace.

There, in the living moment of the Lord, by the Holy Spirit, we are met.

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The Holy Spirit abides in and through the prayers of the humble hurting. Our healing Comforter is met, never more, than in the Shadowy Valley of God. Enter willingly. Disparage fear. Choose faith.

© 2014 S. J. Wickham.