If so, you could be travelling through ‘Baca‘
I sympathise with anyone going through this valley right now. I’ve travelled through ‘Baca’ a few times so I know how rough it can be!
This valley is the complete opposite, to the former memorable, happy, care-free days in ‘Heidi land.’
This valley isn’t a smooth pleasant place to be! It’s rough! Very rough.
That’s because The Valley of Baca is a place of tears.
In the Bible, The Valley of Baca was the route the Pilgrims had to go through to get to a longed-for destination. There was no other route other than through the bleak, long, hot, rocky Valley of Baca. It would depend on how intense a traveller’s ‘want’ was, if they were to make it through such a trying journey. But if their ‘want’ was desperate enough, they’d make it.
But the tragedy is: many don’t make it, and do drop out on the rough Baca road. Many ‘stumble’ but fail to dust themselves off and carry on walking again because the road isn’t ‘quite what they expected it to be’ or is ‘a little ‘too hot’ for them, or isn’t quite smooth or ‘cool’ enough to continue. But this is such a shame as the Valley of Baca is the route to somewhere special! And what a waste of a life-long journey with God, just to give in on the very last bit! Everyone knows that the last leg of a Marathon is the toughest.
People see envious images of climbers standing on the pinnacle of the highest mountain, as if they’d been dropped on it by helicopter. But no – to get to such heights and to behold such stunning views surrounding them, they’d had to pass gruelling endurance tests. And they didn’t mind risking life and limb to do it!
But make no mistake… ‘Baca’ literally means ‘weeping’ – and weep you will. Hurt you will! You will not only stumble, but could feel too drained to even want to keep going, because The Valley of Baca is like no other valley and is a seriously trying time.
For the Pilgrims, the dreaded journey through The Valley of Baca was to be able to worship in Jerusalem, what they longed to do most, and where they craved to be more than any where else. But those who made it would be those who kept believing the journey through the Baca valley was worth it whatever the cost’; yet on the way, they would sadly see numbers dwindling, wondering just how many would be left at the end of the journey! A journey through Baca can end up being a lonely place towards the end! But better to be lonely than not to make it at all!
There is a Scripture I love. It only has 5 words but it has done a lot for me…“And it came to pass”
“PASSING through the valley of Baca“ This means what is says – it doesn’t last. That ‘boulder’ or ‘big rock’ that you are struggling to get over right now, is temporary, because everything here is temporary.
Weep as much as you need to weep. Cry to God as often as you need to. But keep your eye on the prize while doing so. The saying goes ‘if something is too good to be true, then it usually is‘. But this is not so in the case of a Pilgrim! It is not too good to be true, that we will actually see the very face of God! It is not too good to be true that we will actually see the nail prints in His hands. It is not too good to be true that you WILL see that loved one again. It is not too good to be true, that at the end of your temporary rough road that your mansion is waiting for you to occupy, and the streets of pure gold waiting for you to walk along. Why isn’t it too good to be true? Because God doesn’t lie!
Faith says ‘I won’t always weep‘. Faith says ‘this is not the end‘. Faith says, ‘I have a another life after this one‘. Faith says ‘I’ll have a new body one day!‘ Faith says ‘this journey is worth it to obtain what has been promised me!
Faith keeps it’s eye on the prize, “I press toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” Phil 3:14.
It doesn’t matter for whatever reason, that you maybe weeping more than usual at the moment on suddenly finding yourself on an unexpected bumpy Baca road. The important thing is that you don’t STOP walking altogether! It isn’t the STUMBLING that will rob you of getting to The Promised Land… “A righteous man falls seven times and rises again” (Proverbs 24:16).
It isn’t always God who sends us through this valley of tears. A valley of weeping can just happen somewhere along the Christian path. That’s life. Sin ruined how things should have been. But in The Promised Land there is no sin to ruin anything ever again!
But even on a rough ‘Baca‘ experience, God will still faithfully refresh His Pilgrims, as they seek His comfort and strength to help them to just keep plodding along.
“How blessed (i,e, privileged) is the person whose strength is in you. Passing through the valley of Baca (Lit:weeping) they make it a spring” (Psalm 84:6).
God Bless, Christine.
Message taken from ‘The Skinny Soul’ – containing 26 distinctive message to fatten up your soul. Yes, the Bible speaks of how to have a FAT soul!
