Stop Climbing!

All these years, being in valleys from time to time, I have just realized something.

You don’t climb out of a valley.

You walk through it.

Somehow, I missed that.

Every time I found myself in a difficult season, I treated the valley like a low place I had fallen into. And in my mind, the only way out was up. I thought my job was to fight harder, push harder, and climb my way back to higher ground as quickly as possible.

I measured progress by elevation.

If I wasn’t getting out, I felt like I was failing.

So I climbed.

I climbed through grief.

I climbed through disappointment.

I climbed through uncertainty.

I climbed through pain.

And eventually, like every exhausted climber, I found myself worn out, frustrated, and wondering why I wasn’t making better progress.

Then it hit me.

The Shepherd never told me to climb.

Psalm 23 doesn’t say:

“Though I climb out of the valley of the shadow of death I fell into…”

It says:

“Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me.”

The goal was never to scale the walls.

The goal was to stay with the Shepherd.

And maybe that’s been my problem.

I’ve been climbing when I should have been walking.

I’ve been scrambling up the sides of the valley, trying to escape what God wanted to lead me through.

I’ve been searching for shortcuts while the Shepherd was standing on the path saying, “This way.”

Maybe He has been waiting for me to get tired enough to stop climbing.

Tired enough to stop striving.

Tired enough to stop trying to save myself.

Tired enough to come back down to where He is.

Because the safest place in the valley isn’t halfway up the mountain.

It’s beside the Shepherd.

The valley isn’t where we prove our strength.

It’s where we learn to trust His presence.

The truth is, valleys are not permanent addresses. They are pathways.

You don’t live there.

You pass through there.

And you don’t pass through by climbing harder.

You pass through by walking with the One who knows the way out.

So if you’re tired from climbing, maybe it’s time to stop.

Come back down.

Find the Shepherd.

And take the next step.

Not up.

Forward.

One step at a time.

Because valleys are not conquered by climbers.

They’re crossed by followers.