Life is quite the rollercoaster. We can find ourselves up in the heights and down in the lows in the blink of an eye. I don’t know that much about rollercoasters because I don’t like them and avoid riding them. But from the few times I have ridden on one, I remember enough to realize that life tends to be very much like one.
One moment in life, we can find ourselves at such a “happy high” and feeling like everything is just peachy! But a moment later, we might suddenly find ourselves at a “sad low” wondering if everything will turn out all right.
It is hard for me to face the extreme lows after extreme highs. Well…the truth is that I don’t think there is ever a time when I can face the extreme lows without difficulty. Who wants the highs to end? Not me!
However, I am also very well aware that without the valley lows I would never appreciate the mountain highs. Too easily we take things and people for granted in this life. We like to complain all the time about things we shouldn’t complain about, and we tend to forget all the goodness we have been blessed with day in and day out. Often times, the only way we can learn to appreciate what we have been given so abundantly is by having to live without it for a time. The lows of life play a very important role. Through those lows, we learn and grow in our character and in our faith much more than we ever could during any “happy high”. “Happy highs” are mini vacations in the “work of life”, and they don't last indefinitely.
A little over a week ago, I was experiencing a wonderful happy high time for a few hours. But the next day, some circumstances and difficulties with one of my children brought that high time crashing down to a difficult low. It’s a valley low time for one of my children right now, and I travel the valley with that child. My child has no idea or current ability to understand that in my heart, mind, and soul I travel the valley with her; but I certainly do. That’s just the kind of person and mom that I am.
In that valley low, I cry out Psalm 121 for myself, my child, and our family:
I will lift up my eyes to the mountains;
From where shall my help come?
My help comes from the LORD,
Who made heaven and earth.
He will not allow your foot to slip;
He who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, He who keeps [us]
Will neither slumber nor sleep.
The LORD is your keeper;
The LORD is your shade on your right hand.
The sun will not smite you by day,
Nor the moon by night.
The LORD will protect you from all evil;
He will keep your soul.
The LORD will guard your going out and your coming in
From this time forth and forever.
From where shall my help come?
My help comes from the LORD,
Who made heaven and earth.
He will not allow your foot to slip;
He who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, He who keeps [us]
Will neither slumber nor sleep.
The LORD is your keeper;
The LORD is your shade on your right hand.
The sun will not smite you by day,
Nor the moon by night.
The LORD will protect you from all evil;
He will keep your soul.
The LORD will guard your going out and your coming in
From this time forth and forever.
I love You, O LORD, my strength.
The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge;
My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised,
And I am saved…
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