In the Trench

Remember the Pixar movie Finding Nemo? A young clownfish, Nemo, is whisked away from Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and his father, Marlin, sets off to find him. Along the way, he comes upon a school of fish that directs him on how to get to Sydney. In those directions, the school says that Marlin will come upon a trench. The school warns him that he will be tempted to just swim over the trench rather than passing through it. What the school did not reveal is that there was a smack of jellyfish (yes, that is the collective noun) waiting above the trench. Marlin chooses to swim above the trench and nearly dies after being stung so many times. 

I think the trials of life work in this way too. The trench, when you are standing there looking at it, looks terrifying. But it is promised in Psalm 23 that the Lord is with us even through the valley of the shadow of death. Other Psalms call God a shield about us, even a mighty fortress. 

As seen in Job’s trial, the Enemy works to take our eyes off the one who is our shield and fortress. In these moments of vulnerability, in the trench of a trial, the Enemy beckons us to just get out of it ourselves knowing he has set up entrapments like sin, doubt, and deeper despair all around us. For us, swimming above the trench could look like checking-out and numbing emotionally; it could be selling-out spiritually or giving into our most invasive and intrusive thoughts. 

But through God’s providence He reveals His presence in the trench. I remember when my daughter was sick. Her condition required open heart surgery and immediately the church surrounded us in support and care. God used His people as a shield; through care, prayer, and constant words of support and kindness. Our trench revealed the Lord’s presence to us in our lives in a whole new way. He gave us a sense of peace- even joy - in the midst of the darkest uncertainty we had faced as parents. Part of the testing of our faith comes in our willingness to stay in the trench and look for Him there. Sometimes you just have to stay in it to see where He is at work in it. 

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Lord today, no matter the size or scope of the trench I am in, let me find You there. I want to seek and know in such a way that Your presence is always evident to me. May my heart believe and my mouth confess that You are Lord over every mountaintop and every valley. Amen.