Devotionals

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Valley Periods
©
by

Stephen A. Peterson


As a young Freshman Army ROTC cadet at Indiana University—Bloomington during what the military called a routine military physical examination, I asked the Army doctor about the machine he used to measure my heart beats.

“Sir, what is this machine called and why doesn’t it show a straight line? Is there anything wrong?” I asked.

“This machine, cadet, is called a heart monitoring machine. It’s measuring your heartbeats. The ups and downs that you see on the screen over here tells me that you have a healthy heart and you’re okay. If this monitor showed a straight line, then that’s not a good sign as far as you’re concerned. It would mean you’re dead or something is wrong with the machine.” Responded the Army doctor.

I guess the Lord is the Master and First Doctor to ever exist permits humankind to have their share of “ups” and “downs” in our race in life to obtain our “crown of glory”.
In my dealings with people over the years, I have met people who do everything they can to try to live what one person referred to as a “straight and narrow life” and a life without the belief in God. As one might expect, these individuals seemed to seek pleasure, were sad, angry and always searching mostly for what they called “themselves”. They never seemed to find “themselves”. They never seemed to be able to deal with their “down” period when they came.

They never learned their “downs”, the failures, moments of weakness, disappointments, losses—are common to every person. In that vain, our “downs” only serve to deepen our understanding one another’s problems, a need to share these moments of times with each other members of the Body of Christ, and most importantly, to seek the face of God humbly and quietly. So that in the end of our valley period we can share a heighten moment of happiness and joy when we come to a high point.

One thing I learned for certain about “down” periods is without them, we would never reach the highest peaks nor would we be able to see the face of God on the mountain of faith.

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