Over the past couple of weeks, I have been freshly reminded that an intensely busy pace of life can be stopped in its tracks by bad news.  It may have been a middle of the night phone call, a doctor’s report, a damage assessment, a repair estimate… or even an email.  Psalm 112 says that the one who fears the Lord and delights greatly in God’s commands will have a steady heart and will have no fear of bad news.  Other translations render verse seven as “They are not afraid of evil tidings” or “Bad news holds no fears for him.”  Those Scriptures all sound very nice, but the challenge is when you are actually faced with bad news.  Sometimes they are easier read and said than experienced!  Even more so when you are confronted with the same bad news indicating that you are going to have to face something a second time.  What do you do when it appears that the bad news means a second time in the valley?

 The Lord gave me an answer through an experience with our youngest daughter.  When Rachel was little, she did not like riding down steep hills.  From her car seat in the back, she would begin to whimper each time she realized we were descending.  This symptom was magnified when a move to a new part of town required us to drive through a deep ravine called Wintergreen Gorge to get to our new home.  Going through the valley became a very unpleasant experience.  While we dreaded it, the reality was that it was a necessary path for us to take to get home.

On one particular trip with Rachel, I felt led to stop at the bottom of the gorge.  We parked, got out and began to walk.  A few minutes into our journey, we discovered a beautiful trail.  There were trees and leaves, flowers and bugs, rocks and sticks, and even a little stream.  Rachel spent a long time walking through the valley with her father.  As we explored, we held hands, we talked, we laughed, we walked, we ran, and at times stood in silence listening to the birds.  It was precious time together – father and child.  We eventually walked back to the car and drove the rest of the way up and out of the gorge reflecting on all that we experienced.

The very next time we came to Wintergreen Gorge, Rachel realized that we were going back into the valley.  Her small whimper indicated that anxiety, fear and apprehension were flooding back into her mind.  So, I began to talk to her as we descended.  “Rachel,” in as gentle a voice as I could speak, “Do you remember the last time we were here?  Remember walking on the trail together?”  She was silent as she fought to discipline her thoughts enough to remember.  Pausing, I gently asked, “Do you remember the beautiful flowers and that large tree that was lying across the trail?  Do you remember daddy climbing over it, picking you up and putting you on top?  Remember that little bridge that we decided to crawl under?”  She wavered between tears and a nervous smile.  But as she began to remember walking with her father through the valley the last time, anxiety began to melt and her countenance began to change.  Her smile slowly broadened.  Then, it was like the dam burst and a deluge of memories of time with her father in this valley flooded her heart and mind.  Beaming, she began to turn the dialogue around, asking me the questions – making sure I remembered!  In her animated full voice she continued her questioning “…and dad, do you remember the creek?   And that big hill we climbed up then ran all the way down?  Do you remember that stick that looked like a giraffe?”

 I was amazed.  Here we were in the same valley, but her anxiety about going through it again was replaced with remembering the time she spent with her dad walking through it the last time.  God turned that same valley, not into a place to fear and dread, but instead, into a place to recall the intimacy of relationship she had with her father the last time through it.

 For those of you facing bad news that indicates that you may have to walk through the valley a second time, I just wanted to offer a word of encouragement.  While the valley you have been through, and sense you may be headed into again, was not a joyful place of wonder and discovery as it was with Rachel and I, I do know that your Heavenly Father walked with you each step of the way through it.  It was a place of discovery as you walked with God and learned how to trust all over again.  The reality is that you are not the same person that you were the first time you went through it.  So, I pray that as you experience a second time in the valley, that any anxiety and apprehension would be replaced with reminders of His loving embrace, holding you up and carrying you over what seemed insurmountable the last time.  I pray that you would experience His embrace afresh again this time: that fear would be displaced with the reality of how high, how wide, how deep, how long, how sweet and how strong your heavenly Father’s love is for you.  I echo the declaration of the Psalmist, “Even were I to walk in a ravine as dark as death I should fear no danger, for you are at my side”  [Psalm 23:4 NJB].  Be encouraged, you will come up out of the valley on the other side, in awe of how God carried you through then and now.