The Valley

I haven't felt particularly inspired to write lately. That bothers me, because it's always so therapeutic to write things out. But recently it seems my thoughts have been mostly sporadic, lacking consistency and any real substance. This is disconcerting, because for the past several months I've been pretty prolific, and that's been personally satisfying.

As always, this sudden change has made me question what's wrong. Also as always, the last thought to occur to me is that nothing actually is, and this is a perfectly natural descent from a high.

So here I am in this inspirational valley, so to speak. And the timing, by the way, is perfect, because my daily Chambers devotionals have been addressing the subject of faith on mountains versus that in valleys a lot lately. The summary is that it's of the utmost importance to remain faithful in such times, because spiritual lows are the true test of our faith, rather than how spiritual we get during the highs.

During this particular low, I think it's important for me to consider the role of writing this blog; to sort of put it into perspective. It is, of course, the natural, sinful, human tendency to take innocuous things and idolize and worship them, turning them sour. The tool is only as good as its user, after all. And that's all this writing space is: a way for me to process my thinking, record my thoughts for future reference, and God willing, perhaps even help others with similar struggles.

But given the human nature, the moderate euphoria I get from composing a blog entry that I particularly like warps my perspective a little bit. I take pride in it. That eventually reaches a point when it's no longer a means to an end, but an end in and of itself. And that, of course, is wrong.

The valleys are meant to remove the things that are idolized. Perhaps not completely, perhaps not permanently, but enough to put them in their place and show us that we do still and always need Christ first and foremost. Everything else, no matter what great purpose it has served in the past, is ultimately expendable.