find Him in the valley...

last night at community, one of our younger girls, marissa collins, said something that caught my attention. she said every year she can point out a time when she will experience extreme joy and extreme depression... during and after a summer camp she usually goes to.

as she explained her statement, i was filled with sadness at the depth and emotion (from personal experience) that her words held. marissa said each year she goes to summer camp, and is filled with excitement as she spends time with other believers who have left to the same camp as her to spend time away from the real world connecting with God on a level she doesn't usually experience during the rest of the year. she followed up her excited reverie with a sigh, and said "but then we go back home... things go back to normal life. people struggle with sin and sadness and just all the normal stuff that doesnt happen at camp."

i realized marissa's words rang with the sadness and longing we all have felt at one time or another. we've all gone to a camp or womens retreat or conference, and gotten to have those "mountaintop experiences" with other people who we unite in purpose with to seek after God for that time.

when marissa was done sharing, something i've always thought but never really spoke of kinda became clear in my head, and i shared it with the group.

as the Body of Christ grows stronger and more healthy, i dont believe life will be lived today on "the mountaintop" and tomorrow "in the valley" (if you put it in the churchy terms we've all heard so many times)... not to the extreme, at least. i believe it will be lived on level ground... in community with one another. with community surrounding us, we have the support and the strength that we need in this life that is so hard to handle sometimes.

marissa's sentiments about her sadness in leaving camp were tied to the people she left behind... the community she had been a part of, and the emptiness she felt when she realized she was going back to the real world where she didnt have that. she knew she would be met with loneliness and that emptiness that just seems to consume us all when we feel alone or need someone to encourage us and challenge us to focus on Christ and what he is doing rather than the distractions of this world.

i would submit to you that God is so often not on that perpetual mountaintop... but rather, that he resides in the valley... the place where we are challenged in our faith and spurred on in our walk with him. for many in our community group here in reno, our "valleys" are the days between when we see each other and when we meet to encourage and comfort and invest in one another... and our "mountaintop experiences" are so often and so deeply rooted in what Christ is teaching us and leading us towards, that the valleys dont seem so bad... they don't seem like a far drop from the mountaintop.

on the mountaintop (our times of community and sharing life together), we just get a better view... a better perspective from a higher elevation... of what the valley looks like, and what God is doing in us there. we're learning to look for God in the valleys... in the places where he challenges us to leave our comfort zones and seek more of Him in new and fresh ways.

this week i'm learning that community means the Christian walk isn't an emotional rollercoaster... not a yoyo of excitement and then inevitable depression when that excitement wears off... it's a stable and driving force that God uses to dispell loneliness, combat insecurity, and make us aware of our strengths and weakness so we can have someone else come along side us and help support us through the hard times.

geographically in america, the physical valleys we have here are some of the most beautiful places in the world to visit. people travel across continents to walk across the lush beauty of a valley of green grass, rolling fields of wildflowers and hanging trees.

isnt it ironic (if we're relating these valleys to Christian terms) that life in the valley is kept alive - and sustained - by runoff from those mountaintops? hmmm.

if Christ creates the valleys on this earth with so much creativity and beauty, why did we every start thinking it was a bad thing to be in one?