A sweet woman at our church passed away from brain cancer back in February.
I will never forget the testimony she gave during our church’s gratitude service near Thanksgiving. This young woman— so young— knew her time was close. And sitting in her wheelchair at the front of the sanctuary said the words, “the valley is sweet because our God is kind.”
I wrote the words in my journal. As she got closer to heaven and finally went home, her words echoed even louder in my heart and soul:
The valley is sweet because our God is kind.
I have talked these words over with my husband and told him I want to make a song from them, and he agreed.
Some poetry and songs come easily to me. Portions of this song has, but parts are still clunky. Finding the right words and ideas while considering meter and rhyme and how the music will carry them is a challenge at times.
It would be easier, perhaps, to just shove a couple of thoughts into AI and see what it creates– but even if it somehow could capture what I want to say, I believe God works in struggle and friction with language and life to create true, authentic communication about Himself, His Workings, and His People. AI can’t capture those things because it doesn’t know those things, and I don’t want to outsource the way I can be an Image Bearer to a machine.
But I digress.
The point is, I’m wrestling– with words. And with life.
I wrestle with the truth behind the song that I’m writing. Our family has been in valley after valley, and what if it doesn’t feel kind? What if I wrestle with that? Does that disqualify me from writing it? Do I have to feel it to know that it is true? The answer, I know, is no.
But the answer, I also know, is that I will. If I don’t see it now, or feel it now, I will. I will be able to trace his kindness.
The song isn’t written yet. Bits and pieces are, and bits and pieces come in waves while I’m listening to our pastor, reading a book to my children, cutting in fat in flour to make biscuits.
The words are working on me. The Holy Spirit is working on me.
The chorus becomes clearer to me, even as the stanzas still sort themselves out:
The Valley is not the place where we planned,
But we know, even here, that He guides with His hand.
Not in spite of the Shadow, but with Shadow entwined,
The Valley is sweet because our God is kind.
The Valley is sweet because our God is kind.
Just like my song has to be wrestled into being– not just generated in seconds
The Valley wrestles my faith into being– the closeness in the struggle creating more and more evidence to clearly see who He really is, if I let Him.
I once again find myself wrestling with words and the Wordsmith all at once.
And just like before, I believe with time, He will prove Himself kind.
