Psalm 23

YES THOUGH I WALK…

Do I have a choice?  If I don’t walk I go nowhere, I stay here.  In this muck, Yuck!  I have to walk through it.  There’s no other way to get out of it.  There’s no way out unless I put one foot in front of the other and continue on this journey.  YES a journey.  And there is no running through it.  No quick way around it.  It is a journey and I will walk through it because I must.

THROUGH THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH…

Are there peaks and valleys in everyone’s life?  There certainly are in mine.  And this is one long valley; that I seem to have to cross through again.  I want out.  This valley is covered with shadows, darkness, death.  The shadow reaches across my walk, my life.  I want out from under it.  I want to be in the sun again.  Is death so close that it casts its shadow over my life?  Is it so close that I keep walking through its shadow?  It seems that everywhere I walk, it is there.  I see brief glimpses of the sun and then it’s back…that shadow.  I want the sun, the light, to push away the shadow.  I keep searching for the sun, I keep looking UP.

I WILL FEAR NO EVIL, FOR YOU ARE WITH ME!

I will resist this fear.  I will resist this evil.  I will resist because I know you are with me.  Never leaving me or forsaking me.  You are the lifter of my head.  You surround me.  You are my strong tower.  I can scale any wall.  I am able to turn from fear because you are here with me.  Connor stayed with me this week.  In the middle of the night he woke and said to me, “Gram, I’m afraid of the dark!”  I immediately responded, “You don’t have to be afraid Connor, Gram’s here.”  He snuggled up to me and buried his head in my shoulder, “Okay Gram.” And fell back asleep.  I want to ‘snuggle up’ to God and know that I don’t have to be afraid.  He’s here.  There’s no reason for me to fear.  Though I’m walking through this valley…I won’t allow fear to guide me.