Shadows

For those of you who have followed my previous blogs, this is an old post. I was reading through some of my old writings today and this one really made me think. It's always cool to look back at life and see where you were and how you were thinking through different situations in life.

 

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
Your perfect love is casting out fear
And even when I'm caught in the middle of the storms of this life
I won't turn back, I know you are near

I could sing that song over and over again! This morning I heard a really great sermon on Psalm 23. You know that psalm.. the one everyone's heard, but maybe never "listened" to. Isn't it interesting that the path of Righteousness always leads you through the valley- the valley of the shadow of death. Why? Well I believe in that valley is where your faith is really found. In Psalm 23:1-3 you see David doing a lot of talking about his God.... I'm pretty good at that myself- I can make you believe anything I want you to. In verses 4 to the end of the psalm, David's focus changes. He begins talking to his God. I struggle with that one, I like to talk at God, I like to tell God how I think it should be, and how He needs to help me. David's words changed from "He maketh me, He leadeth me, He restoreth" to "Thou this and thou that, and Your" you can clearly see David begins praying to God. One of the interesting things I heard in this sermon was about the shadows in our valleys. We all have our shadows, the things we fear, things that scare us to death (for me its funerals, moving on, losing people and FROGS!) Here are a few things I learned about those shadows things morning.

1. Shadows are always larger than reality. -- Have you ever looked at your shadow... you look like Goliath! That dragon fly looks like a buzzard coming to attack you... everything is blown way out of proportion! Well it's the same way with our shadows in the valley, they're never as big as we make them to be.

2. Shadows have NEVER killed anyone. -- That's funny, but true! I have never heard on the news of someone getting ran over by the trains shadow and dying?? Shadows don't kill you!! To me this is like frogs.. they seem SO terrifying, but in reality, they have NEVER hurt me, sure they've made me hurt myself but that's it! Last Wednesday I spent 17 minutes on the front porch throwing pieces of mulch at a frog on the door in the dark trying to make him move so I could go inside.. HE WASNT GOING ANYWHERE!!! Had I just gone through the valley... like I did (later) He would have never bothered me! LOL

3. Where there is a shadow, by necessity there must be light. --You will never see a shadow where there is no light... imagine that!

4. When your focused on your shadow (problem), your back is to the light.