Valleys Create Opportunities

There’s been a significant drop in prices in the oil & gas industry, which is my current career, so of course there’s lots of talk about what that means for the consumer and for oil and gas companies. In a department meeting we had a few weeks ago, my manager said, “Valleys create opportunities.” Right then, there was a quickening in my spirit. Yes they do! I thought that’s not just true of business, that’s true of life, of relationships, of our spiritual walk with Christ.

We all walk through valleys. It’s just a part of life on this side of Heaven. Some valleys are awful, scary and all we can do is just keep breathing; other valleys aren’t as breath taking but still hard and usually painful in some way.  I Peter 1:6-7 says we suffer grief and go through trials of all kinds so that our faith is proved genuine. These trials strengthen our faith so that we may become the people Jesus wants us to be. It’s not easy to walk through these valleys and often we don’t think we’ll make it but when we can’t, that’s when God can. It’s allowing God to get us through these trials that strengthens our faith in Him. Suffering alone doesn’t gain us anything and it doesn’t make God happy either. He wants us to lean on Him. Give Him your weakness and He’ll give you His strength. His Word promises this.

My oldest son had to have surgery on his kidney a year ago today. The urethral tube leaving his kidney wasn’t filtering properly and caused his kidney to swell which in turn caused vomiting. I should also mention that Noah has anxiety, he’s an over-thinker, and he worries about dying a lot even though he’s saved and believes he’s going to heaven. So for him, going through this surgery felt very scary, it was like facing death in a way. It meant pain, discomfort and the worst part, no baseball for a month. This boy has been playing ball for over 6 years and a month off for him would be eternity. I’d say for a 10 year old boy this was quite a valley. I immediately began praying for the opportunity this would create. I prayed that God would show up big for Noah and instead of thinking about death and fear which is what Satan is counting on, I prayed this would be a beautiful moment where Noah sees what God can really do when you trust Him. “Anyone who meets a testing challenge head on and manages to stick it out is mighty fortunate. For such persons loyally in love with God, the reward is life and more life.” (James 1:12) Oh how I hope my sons would be loyally in love with God and be rewarded with life! That’s a challenge worth accepting. The first night after Noah’s surgery was tough. He was in a lot of pain and he had a catheter and he hates those so we were up almost every hour. He would push back the tears and try to be tough, and so would I. He looked at me in the middle of that night and said, “Mommy I prayed that God would help me and I hope that He will.” Baby boy, He already has and He’s here right now. This is just the beginning. That’s just the thing isn’t it? That’s the opportunity, to see Jesus, to know Him more and learn to really trust Him. My greatest valleys didn’t just prove my faith genuine, but my marriage, my friendships, my finances. When those things are lined up with God’s will, that’s when you flourish. That’s where real joy is! My mom said to me in the hospital, “Noah is an amazing ball player even with these health issues. Can you imagine how much greater he might be after he’s healed?” Maybe he will be better. Even if he’s not, even if he’s worse; in Noah’s ten year old valley, he sought God and he found Him.

It also happens to be his birthday and so I was reflecting on his life and I was reminded of a time when Noah was only seven. I got frustrated with him because of his anxiety. He’s always questioning everything; not to be disrespectful but because he’s afraid he’ll do the wrong thing. He’ll wonder if his coach really said to wear the red shirt instead of the blue one and ask to see the text from him. He’ll be upset if we’re only 20 minutes early instead of 30. If it doesn’t make sense to him, he doesn’t trust it. These doubts happened every day when he was younger and one day I finally looked at him and said, “I’ve been taking care of you since you were in my tummy, I’ve been loving you since before you were born and everything I do is for you. Why don’t you trust me?! I love you and I’m not going to stop!” Right then, God said, “Darbi, do you hear me?!” The sounds were coming out of my mouth but the words were God’s. Y’all, God loves you and He’s never going to stop. He wants the very best for you even in the valleys, especially in the valleys. Opportunity is defined as a set of circumstances that make it possible to do something. When I think about the valleys of life, I don’t automatically think “Yay! What an opportunity!” But, maybe I should. Maybe the next valley is the greatest opportunity of my life.