Honest With God: Finding Healing and Wholeness Through the PsalmsНамуна

Jim was overwhelmed by grief and defeat.

The camp he ran was dying before his very eyes. An entire summer’s worth of registrations had been lost in 2020. The vast majority of the staff had been furloughed, and he and a few team members were creatively trying to discover a way to create revenue during what should have been their busiest season of the year.

Six months earlier, Jim had attended a service at our church where I shared a message about gratitude. Jim listened as I described how gratitude was less of a feeling and more of a muscle we developed through intentional practice. After hearing about my Gratitude Muscle Challenge, Jim began making a list of three things he was grateful for each day. Jim’s list was already several hundred items long when his professional world came crashing down.

Even as he navigated intense grief and pain, Jim was able to look for and see God’s presence and provision in dark times.

As I've shared already in this plan, King David understood this territory intimately. "Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me." (Psalm 23:4 NIV)

David doesn't promise the absence of dark valleys; he acknowledges them as an inescapable part of the human experience. But, he also declares the presence of the Shepherd in those valleys, the reality of divine companionship in the places where we feel most alone. God continues to meet us where we are, even when that place is somewhere that we never planned to be.

Later, in Psalm 139, David marvels at the inescapable presence of God: "Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there." (Psalm 139:7-8 NIV)

Even in the depths – the word David uses can mean “the grave itself” – God's presence remains constant. He is not a distant observer, but an intimate companion who refuses to abandon us to our pain. I was honored to partner with Jim that year to create a resource to encourage the camp’s patrons, and it was a huge blessing to speak to 200 men the following year at a retreat. Watching Jim direct the experience filled my heart with joy because I knew the way he’d held both grief and gratitude in his heart as he trusted in God during a dark and challenging year.

God's presence doesn't eliminate pain, but it transforms our experience of walking through it. God’s presence transforms us as we trust in Him.

I’m excited to turn the tables tomorrow as we shift from one of the most challenging emotions to one of the brightest ones!