I was going to write something very significant...

let's see if I can remember...

Driving back from Pittsburg today, I attempted communication with a divine
being. He showed me his perspective on my recent life.

He showed me so much love and grace throughout this that I am to the point of no regret, and that is saying a lot considering how I have felt as little as a month ago.

Now, as if that were not significant enough, here is something else, one of the most important lessons that God has ever revealed to me.

One year ago, at this time, I was in the middle of what the Christian community would call a "mountaintop experience." That is, I was in the word, and felt a nearness to God that I had never envisioned. Christians speak a lot about hills and valleys, and I had heard a lot about it, but I had no wisdom on the subject. What I had heard is that, in our spiritual walk, we will have hills and valleys, so eventually, people walking up the hill will reach the top, and have to go down. I just knew that I was traversing the largest hill I had ever been in contact with, and I liked it.

My thoughts were:

Why do I have to come down? Does this hills and valleys talk have any biblical backing?

I even asked a friend if that was the case. He didn't seem to have an answer that satisfied me. Much to my dismay, I came down. Not only came down, but I was the mental image you get when you hear the Jack and Jill nursery rhyme. I have been in the valley now for about nine or ten months. It is not easy - any time it rains, your feet get soaking wet. So why did I have to come down?

The answer is found in John 15. We are the branches. Every branch that bears fruit He prunes, so that it will bear even more fruit. Everytime we go through a valley, it is not God punishing us, but God pruning us to bear more fruit. Our problem is that we have taken this hill-valley thing way too far. We associate going through the valley with sinning, but it was not meant to be that way. When we go through the valley, that is when it becomes most difficult to avoid the flesh and follow Christ. So some of us even justify ourselves, substituting the words "sinning" with "going through the valley." The important thing is to remember that valleys are a necessary part of walking with Christ, and submitting to Him is the hardest in these periods.

For whatever reason, my thoughts feel somewhat disjointed on this post. Perhaps next time I will be able to paraphrase this thought a little better. I had no problem saying it on tuesday during bible study. Oh well.