Are You Stumbling?

Do you sometimes feel that you’re not going to make it?

Do you feel that your trial is like no other!?

Are you having it worse than you ever imagined?

If so, you could be travelling through ‘Baca‘.

I sympathise with anyone travelling through Baca as I have travelled through it a few times and I know how rough it is – very rough!

This valley is the complete opposite to your former, happy, care-free days in the lush valley of ‘Heidi-land.’

The Valley of Baca in the Bible is the route the Pilgrims had to travel through if they were to get to a longed-for destination. There was no other route other than through the barren, hot, rocky and dangerous Valley of Baca. It would depend on how big a traveller’s ‘want’ was, if they were to continue right to the end of the journey. If their ‘want’ was great enough, they’d make it.

The Pilgrims journey through The Valley of Baca was to do what they longed to do most: worship in Jerusalem. But those who made it through would only be those who’d kept on believing that the testing journey was worth it.

But the tragedy is, many don’t continue. Many do drop out on this tough Baca road. Many ‘stumble’ and fail to ‘dust themselves off’ and to keep going. Some excuses are – the road wasn’t ‘quite as easy as they thought it would be’ ‘it was a bit ‘too hot’ ‘It wasn’t quite ‘cool’ or ‘trendy’ enough. 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 up on the very last bit! Everyone knows that the last leg of a Marathon is the toughest.

We see envious images of climbers standing on the pinnacle of the highest of mountains looking as if they’d been dropped there by helicopter. But to get to such heights, and to behold such beauty they’d had to pass gruelling endurance tests first.

But make no mistake… The word ‘Baca’ literally means ‘weeping’. The Valley of Baca is a place of tears! And weep you will. Hurt you will. You will not only stumble, but will feel too upset to even want to keep going, because this Valley is like no other.

On route, a pilgrim would see many dropping by the wayside, wondering if they would be the only one arriving to this craved-for destination! A journey through Baca could end up being lonely towards the end. But far 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”

Everything is temporary. “Passing THROUGH the valley of Baca“ This means what is says – it doesn’t last. That ‘boulder’ or ‘big unexpected rock’ that you are stumbling to get over over right now, 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’s not too good to be true that you WILL see that loved one again.

It’s not too good to be true, that your bespoke mansion is waiting for you to occupy it, and the streets of pure gold waiting for you to walk upon. Why isn’t it too good to be true? Because God doesn’t lie!

It’s not too good to be true, that at the end of the journey we will actually see the very face of God!

It’s not too good to be true that at the end of the journey we will see the nail prints in His hands.

Faith says ‘I won’t always weep‘.

Faith says ‘I will get through this‘.

Faith says, ‘I have a perfect life after this one‘.

Faith says ‘I’ll have a new body one day!‘

Faith says ‘this journey is worth it to obtain what He has 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 are weeping or stumbling on suddenly finding yourself in this valley of tears. The important thing is that you don’t STOP going altogether! It isn’t the pace, or the stumbling, or the weeping, that will rob you of getting to The Promised Land. It is the not wanting it enough to just keeping on plodding on, “A righteous man falls seven times and rises again” (Proverbs 24:16).

It isn’t necessarily 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 perfect things should be. But in The Promised Land there is nothing to ruin anything ever again!

But even on a rough ‘Baca‘ experience, God can still faithfully refresh a Pilgrim on the way…

“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).

“Now unto Him who is able to keep you from STUMBLING“ (Jude 1:24).

God bless you.

Christine.

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