This is a story about…

walking through the valleys of life and allowing God to use them as a classroom of higher learning, not the kind you get at a prestigious university, bible school, or seminary, but on your face before God. For many of us, life in the valley can be so overwhelming and painful that we do everything we can to quickly and eagerly find the nearest exit. By so doing, we miss the greatest opportunities that lie before us.

The valleys we encounter in life are where men and women of God are shaped, molded, and conformed to their new identity in Christ. It is the place where our confidence in a life of self-sufficiency and human dependency are weakened, in order that we might find our strength in the life of Jesus within. It is not on the mountaintops of feel-good experiences that Jesus is revealed in and through us, but in prisons and street gutters.

As a Valley Girl, my journey with God has taught me how much I am loved by him, and no matter what circumstances–losses and disappointments–that I find myself facing, the life of Jesus in me is more than enough. He is more than enough for me and more than enough for anyone who seeks him in those dark and painful places in life.