The Mighty God & The Taunting Giant: Overcoming The Giant Of Fear

"The antidote to fear is faith" 

Louis Giglio, Goliath Must Fall

Hello and welcome back to another article. If you are new: Welcome! We are back on track with our new series The Mighty God & the Taunting giant after one segue from the first article led to another segue (don't judge me).

Today we are talking about another giant that is somewhat difficult and embarrassing to name to the face of the world. We refuse to name it and even say it out loud because we are apprehensive of people's opinion and the way the world will look at us. The taunting giant we are talking about today is fear. It is everywhere, visible and yet so subtle, sometimes crawling under our skin, making our heart pound for no apparent reason or even keeping us up at night. Fear wears many faces and has a lot of names but the two that stuck with me were anxiety and PTSD because we spent quite some time together. I've had a tumultuous relationship with those two for about a decade, with a few (and brief) moments of finally being able to catch my breath (and sanity) only to be sucked back into the insanity again. 

Fear robs us from moments, from peace and from opportunities. Fear blinds us to the possibilities by binding our minds to the worst possible outcomes. Fear kills us by withering any hope we might still have to see and experience things getting better. 

As a christian fighting anxiety, PTSD and depression all together at some point in life, I have heard countless times that the answer was simply to pray because in itself, prayer is supposed to be a panache that cures everything, no matter what it is. In theory (which seems to be a rather amazing place where everything works or is better) it works. But in real life, it is an other story especially when those three can play tag and mess with your sanity at any random time of the day. 

Fear runs deeper than prayer and unless there is an awareness of where it comes from, praying will most likely look like taking an Advil to treat a recurrent headache which could be a symptom of something potentially serious or perhaps deadly. Uprooting fear from our core being requires a process just like explaining why those violent headaches mentioned above are reoccurring. It is a process of looking at the frequency of the headaches, what triggers them, are they always at the same intensity, how long you have had them and then once those questions have been answered, we design a treatment to be followed to possibly cure or lessen the intensity/frequency/duration/impact of the headaches. 

Where is fear coming from? Did you grow up around people that were all-time champions in the worrying category and so you were conditioned to constantly be worried? Did you grow up in an environment where fear was a constant thing? Was there a constant threat such as an abusive parent? War? Or was it an unstable environment that constantly left you on your toes wondering when things were good when they would get worse again?

Is it fear of your imperfections, mistakes or even sins coming out and all of the sudden you are afraid of people's stare, opinion or judgement?

Is it just the fear of not being in control of the way things are happening in your life and around you? 

I'm sure some of you will read this and will pinpoint one thing that you can identify with. My personal experience of fear made me check a box near all of the items listed above that Louie Giglio had organized in three categories: the conditioning, the concealing and the controlling. 

And just as some people believe that praying is the answer, it so happen that some of us believe that this taunting giant of fear - that shows up in the most unexpected way, at the most unexpected time, playing tricks with our mind and gripping us by the collar, leaving us grasping for air - cannot be defeated. And so we negotiate, we compromise, we accommodate the giant with liquid courage, we flirt drugs or sign up for a lifetime supply of Xanax. We try everything and anything that can silence the loud voice of the taunting giant of fear for a little while in order for us to catch a break and breathe a little. 

But what if we didn't have to live up to the expectations of this giant? What if we didn't have to accommodate it anymore? What if uncovering the root of our fears at the light of the Gospel and then bringing it to Jesus through prayer was the cure not to be fearless but to fear less? What if Faith was the answer all along? Not the one that Louie Giglio refers to as the "schizophrenic faith" where we believe in a mighty God capable of turning things around and yet, we accommodate the giant but rather true faith which foundations rest on the Word of God and His immutable promises.

Fear comes from what our giant tells us: You will never make it, you can't do it, it is happening all over again, things will always be like this, what makes you believe you are any different than your mother... father... sister...brother? you'll end just like them. Faith comes from what God tells us and says about us. 

So how exactly do you trade the words of the taunting giants with those of God? Louie Giglio gave us four powerful ingredients that when combined build a solid faith, which is the "antidote to fear." Here are the four things that we need to know and remember:

1- God is able

To save. To heal. To restore. To deliver. You name it. There is nothing too big for God to do. He is the same one who brought Lazarus back to life. He fed five thousand people and there was still food left. He is the one who delivered Israel from the hands of Pharaoh. The same one who fed the widow of Zarephath while his servant Elijah was dwelling with her. He gave Hannah a son and resurrected Jesus. His faithfulness and power are still at work and He is bigger than anything that might come our way during our walk on this earth. When faced with fear, these are the truths we need to lean on to build a faith strong enough to resist the assaults of fear and overcome it. Saturating ourselves with the Word of God is a powerful way to drown the voice of our taunting giant until he can no longer speak because his lies have been uncovered through of the truth of God that is His word.

2- Keep your eyes on the Lord

If you have read some of my past articles then you know two things: a) I am very found of the story about Peter walking on water and b) Hebrew 12:2 is one of my favorite Bible verse. Why those two together particularly? Well because I do believe that keeping our gaze on Jesus (and having faith) is what can allow us to do things similar (not quite literally) to what Peter has done. Nobody ever walked on water: the people before him failed but he did! When we set our eyes on the Lord, what seemed to be impossible before becomes possible. Setting our eyes on the Lord allows us to walk through the storm, to break through the ceiling of low expectations set up by the giant of fear and live a purposeful, fulfilling and abundant life, confidently knowing that God is with us even in the middle of the storm as He was with Peter when He commanded him to walk on the waters. 

3- Put a name on it

Name what it is that is keeping you up at night, making you feel anxious and restless. Bring it to God in prayer and for whatever it is that your anxiety, restlessness and fear is tied to, trust and believe that there is a truth in the Word of God, a promise that testifies of how big your God is next to that mountain. By bringing it to God and replacing fear with faith we are essentially telling God : "This look big and impossible to manage to me, but I bring this to you because I know you are a mighty God that can handle this". We give it to God and we go to bed, trusting that the God who came to the rescue of Daniel in the burning furnace and the den of lions will rescue us too and make a way where there seems to be no way. He is that kind of faithful and mighty God.

4- Praise and worship Him

Praising is not ignoring what is going on but rather acknowledging that God is with us in the midst of what we are going through. Worshiping and praising is standing tall, eye to eye, toe to toe, face to face with the very situation that the enemy is using to try to bring us down and tell that situation about your mighty God. Worshiping and praising is in the words of Louie Giglio :" [to] sing into the face of the uncertainty about a sure and unchanging God."

Faith built through these four ingredients essentially boils down to one thing: being aware of God's presence in every situation we go through, every step of the way, no matter how long the process is. God is with us, sees us, and knows each and every one of our moves because He is an all seeing, all knowing God. Faith is to put our focus on God, just like David did, rather than the taunting giant of fear who shows up to demoralize us everyday. Overcoming the giant of fear is a process, but God already granted us victory and our only requirement to live that victory and freedom is to manifest Faith. 

This is it for the second article of The Mighty God & The Taunting Giant: Overcoming The Giant Of Fear. I hope you found something helpful and no matter what you are going through right now, know that this too shall pass and in the end, God always win. Always.

Until next time,

The Happiness Fairy 👸

Dear Diary...

Little miss perfect first birthday. As you can tell I was scared of being dropped right into my cake 😩

Life can bring the biggest surprises of all time or the hardest, most brutal heartbreaks. The worst thing about it is that it is all a gamble and you still have to show up for it because you never know what the day will bring. A month ago I turned 27 and I will not lie, my life is totally different from what I had imagined. I thought I would be done with school, married, raising my first kid, have a job I love and have a house. LOL joke's on me!

A week into being 27, I found myself battling depression and fighting to stop what seemed like a never ending fall into the abyss. Somehow during that time I was falling and praying to finally hit rock bottom,I asked myself :"when all of this is over, when months/ years from now you look into your rearview mirror, what are the things you want to remember? What are the things you want to carry with you for the rest of 27 and possibly take with you for 28 and perhaps the years to come? what are the lessons you want engraved on the table of your heart and in your spirit, that will pull you through the slump when you find yourself stuck again- because let's face it: it will happen."?

Here are the mental notes that I took to answer those questions, the things that I think will still matter, the lessons that I would like to carry with me for the rest of 27 and perhaps for the rest of my life. 

✔Be where your feet are*

I actually stole this (and a lot of other points on this list!) from Hannah Brencher's book Come Matter Here (review coming soon). I grew up with expectations- my own and other people's- that have been the fuel I have been running on for years. But somehow in the midst of all that running to get "there"(the diploma, the great job, the perfect relationship, etc...) I forgot to be here: to enjoy the little moments, to slow down. I forgot that all those moments I said "no" to because they would take away from the time I thought I needed to get "there", I would never get them back. So I am learning to be here now, to drink the wild air and to appreciate the present because it truly is a gift.

✔Turn down the do-it-yourself Beyonce anthem in your brain*

I was never one to delegate or ask for help. If I needed something done, I would go and do it myself because I always thought that: a) people will let me down so I can't trust them and b) they couldn't do it the way I did it or wanted it done. And I was right about those two facts but I was so focused on them that I forgot that:  c) God sent me great people to make up for those who messed up when I gave them my trust and d) sometimes they did things better than I would have done them. If we didn't need help, God wouldn't have created Eve. Alone I can go fast but learning to reach out to the people God has blessed me with for help, I will go far.

✔Wherever you are going next, tell yourself it will be good*

Years ago I had a taste for change and adventure: I would never say no to something that would break routine. But then, I started walking on the safe side and change became a major stressor for me. As a control freak, the fear of the unknown and the fact that there would be things on the other side of change I couldn't control terrified me. But the truth is that I had conditioned myself to believe that’s t my "next" was never going to be better than my "now". The funny thing is that times and times again, God showed up in unexpected ways and I found myself countless times being grateful that new opportunities for change and growth came up. So no matter how scary and uncomfortable change is, I am working constantly and consistently on reminding myself that wherever I go next, it will be good. It might not be what I want but maybe it is what I need and no matter how uncomfortable it is or how much hardship I encounter stepping into my "next", it will all workout because Romans 8:28 says so.

✔Don't be afraid to rebuild

New beginnings are hard. I have changed schools only four times into my life and moved four times but let me tell you that I hated the feeling of being the new kid on the block or in class. It was always terrifying and exhausting to me to the point where I just stopped getting attached because I hated goodbyes and starting over, everything from scratch. But new beginnings are nothing but an opportunity to do better: to lay better foundations, to build more solid/lasting relationships, to make a difference. So I am learning: learning to start over without repeating the same mistakes. It is a process but I hope by the time I look back and read this again, I will have mastered it. 

✔Loosen your grip

"A closed hand cannot receive" I don't recall who exactly said those words but they stuck with me. It is tempting to hold on to what we have but no matter how good it feels at the moment, we are only harming ourselves in the long run. Why? because we are blocking life's natural flow and preventing good things from entering our life. To loosen a grip is hard because there is always that fear that the next thing will never be better but there is also the risk of missing out on something better. Life is a gamble and all bets are off so let's make the best out of it.

✔See your people. Hug your people

It is hard to see the people around you and let them in when the previous humans before them made a mess into your heart and you soul and left you to collect the broken pieces and figure it all out by yourself. Years of hurt and disappointment left me bitter and angry but mostly superficial. I shut out everybody, even the people who wanted to pull me forward. I did hurt a good deal of them when all they wanted to do is to be there, help me and love me. People will disappoint. People will hurt you. People will leave. But look around yourself, find who your people are. That friend that will pick up your phone call at 3 am and pray with you because you're having a panic attack. That person who will celebrate you for bouncing back from life setbacks. That person that will cheer you, love you even during the darkest hour and hold your hand in the dark. That person who will know when to say something, when to add an extra ten seconds to that hug. Find out who that person/ who those people are and hug them. Hug them tight and don't let go until it's life's time to say goodbye. They won't be perfect but they will be real. They won't be there all the time but they will be there when you need them to. And God knows that life happens and one day they might not be there for you because they might be caught up with their own mess: hug them regardless because they are your people and they love you and it's all that matters. I do have plenty of hugging to do and it's a good thing I got started.

✔Stay busy in the valley*

If you haven't yet, I suggest you read my previous article because it ties up into it. The valley is not a place to stay- true- but nobody knows how long it will take to go through a valley. I am learning in my own valley to not stay idle: I'm working on myself, working on my vision as move forward, adjusting it to what each day brings. The valley is where things and people are taken away but it is also the place where character is built. It is the place where God molds you into the person you are supposed to be to fulfill your purpose. Don't just look at the valley or go through it with your "whatever mode" switched on. Pay attention. Pray. Practice what you are being taught in the valley because your life might very well depend on it someday.

✔Go deep instead of wide*

A while ago I stopped trying to make new friends. I stopped because a) I didn't trust people so I was being all fake to the people I already had around me and b) I hate small talk and at some point it seemed like making new friends was all about it. Right around that time, I also started downsizing my circle of "friends". I say "friends" because really, I didn't know half of those people and the other half didn't know me. So I started cutting ties. The past five years have taught me one important lesson: quantity doesn't matter, quality does. So instead of going wide, I am focusing on going below the surface and building, deep and long lasting relationships with the few that I still have. It might work, it might not but unless I try I will never know.

✔Stay rooted in the Word of God*

Abraham was a hundred years old when he had Isaac. Between the time where God told him he would be father of a multitude and the time Isaac was born there was approximately twenty five years. Joseph dreamed that his entire family will bow down before him. Between the dream and the accomplishment of it, there were twenty two years and very unfortunate circumstances that I am sure made Joseph wonder at time if God had truly spoken or if it was just his imagination. Someone said once that "God speaks from the future and between the time He speaks over our life and the time we see things fall into place, there is a lapse." That lapse is when things get tricky: it's the valley. And in the valley a lot can happen. The devil starts preaching, the internal turmoil gets loud. But the outcome of where we're heading and how long it will take to get there depends heavily on our ability to stay rooted in God and His Word. The lies of the enemy when looking at our circumstances might seem true and they might be louder than God's promises but it's only a matter of time until God wins, because He always does. The only thing we have to do until then is to hold on to His word, to His promises and to Him. 

✔Don't forfeit your right to say no

Pressure to conform, to agree, to nod, to follow, to join. That's how I ended up with about ten thousands emails at some point into my email inbox. That's how I ended up in situations or with people that did not honor me. That's how I ended up making plans I never really wanted to make in the first place and showed up forty-five minutes late because I spent thirty of those forty-five minutes sitting on my bed, with nothing on but a towel, debating if I reaaaaaaally had to go. That's how I broke my own heart thinking "if I say no, they'll be crushed" or "they'll think I'm stuck up" or worst "if I say no they will leave". I gave away my right to say no when breaking people's heart was more important than safeguarding my own. And it's not okay. I am on a quest to reclaim my "no" and to not feel bad about it because honestly there is nothing wrong with it.

✔Don't run: Stay*

I am a runner both figuratively and literally although my ability to run has been on the lower end of the spectrum because of all the lattes, the macaroons and the repetitive assaults my immune system has suffered the last two years. I have ran from everything and everybody my whole life: friends, lovers, love interests, feelings, emotions, relationships, friendships. You name it. Anything that required me to dive into my feelings made me break in sheer terror. Anything that required me to confront people and handle their feelings was a good excuse for me to run. Forever or until things settled. I'm trying to change my ways but it is very hard because old reflexes take longer to fade away. And the itch to run is always there because it is easy to just run but I realized that I also miss out on a lot of things. So I am slowly unpacking and leaving bits of myself with people and in places that will make me hold on to them when I am tempted to pack (figuratively) and leave. 

✔You don't have to be it all*

I have spent the last fifteen years of my life trying to be it all, and it's one of the toughest thing to get out of my system. I am yet to accept that if I am not all those things that the world and the people around me expect me to be but that I am only myself, it's still good enough. Y'all pray for me because the struggle is real 😭

✔Give yourself grace*

In the days where I couldn't be it all, do it all and save everybody, I used to feel an overwhelming sense of guilt. In part because I believe I had failed myself but mostly because I didn't want to be like the people who let me down. I didn't want to be like them and I wanted the world to know that I could do it all, be it all and have it all. Needless to say that things didn't turn out well for me. One important truth to me is this one: Jesus is all. And He is all that I need. Him and sleep and coffee. Those three go a long way. In between, there is grace: for the things I couldn't do, didn't do. For all the times I could only be just enough and not all of it and a bag of chips. For the days where I let people down because I didn't even have the strength to carry myself for more than an hour at times before having an emotional breakdown in the locker rooms at work and going right back to do more work. For all of those in-betweens, there is grace and there will always be because a little bit of it goes a long way.

✔Put your phone down

I used to be so addicted to social media and texting and posting and then something shifted. I can't exactly pinpoint when it happened but it just did. And honestly I have grown founder of that privacy and being able to be in the moment. I am learning to be alive in a world where live-streaming is everything. Memories are great but being able to be a part of it is even better.

✔Chose prayer over patronizing*

It is easy to patronize people. To judge. To condemn. It is the human thing to do but the Christian thing to do is to pray. We all go through life motion. We all carry our very own heavy burdens and life has shaped/ scarred us in many different ways but the goal of it was never and will never be to be bitter but instead to be better. So when I see people acting funny with me, instead of poppin' off on them (and Lord knows there are days!!!), I remind myself to pray it out and to pray for them. Life is never easy. People can be nasty but praying for their heart is a necessity because we've all be there once.

✔Don't be perfect: be real

I used to be little miss perfect. I still am sometimes. But I have come to term with a truth that revolutionized the way I approach people and relate to them: I have become real, raw and honest. About the things I go through. About my struggles. About the state of my mental health. About life. Being able to be real was the beginning of a freeing process that I am still undergoing. It allowed people to not look at me like I'm some kind of boujie girl who doesn't know anything about life struggles. If anything I do believe opening up has allowed people to know me better, to know the why of certain choices I made/make. Being real came with a surprising amount of "me too"s from people I never thought were going through the same things I went through. But that's the beauty and the curse behind it: you won't know until you know and to know requires to be real. There is a ridiculous amount of people out there desperately in need of that. But we won't find each other until we can drop the facade and let people in.

✔"I don't know yet"

I used to be SO sure about so many things a few years ago and now... I can't even commit to a place to eat for lunch or dinner. I have rediscovered the beauty in saying "I don't know yet": it opens new horizons. It gives you options. It gave me the flexibility I needed to break away from the rigid mold I placed myself in. There is nothing wrong with it unless of course, you're wasting someone's time which is the purest form of evil. It's okay to not know yet, to go on your own journey to figure it out. Just know that not many will join you. But you know what? It's okay too.

✔You matter*

I didn't know back then. I was always putting other people's needs before my own. I never knew I mattered the way I do now. It might seem trivial and hard to understand but it is a truth that I came across during my mental self-care and decluttering journey. I am learning to speak up, to say no, to feel what I feel without being ashamed of it and without letting the world shame me for it because I matter and it is something nobody will ever take away from me again unless I give my consent. Being able to know and believe that you matter is a statement that is as powerful as you make it. It's your truth: live it. 

Here are my truths, my lessons, the mental notes that pull me forward these days and I hope you found this article inspiring. Life is not always what it looks like and people are not always what they look like, especially on social media. We're more than what we look like. We are more than our words and our "I'm fine, thanks". Once in a while, take a look back and check on your people because you never know which battles they're fighting.

Until next time,

The Happiness Fairy 👸

The sentences followed by an asterisk (*) are taken or derived from Hannah Brencher's new book Come Matter Here. 

The Mighty God & The Taunting Giant: Overcoming the Giant Of Comfort Pt. 2

Welcome back to another article of this series titled The Mighty God & The Taunting Giant and if you are new here: welcome. I hadn't originally planned to do a part two to Overcoming The Giant Of Comfort and it isn't really a part two. I like to think of it as a bonus article or a case study if I can put it that way. I had originally named this article "Walking through the valley" because truly, it is all it is about. I had written this article weeks back but set it on the side as I was myself transitioning from the mountain to the valley. The valley is a scary place. It is terrifying. It is the place where you ask all kind of questions and where none of the answers make sense. It is scary because it is the place were your enemies can come for you without you even  knowing. It is scary because with regards to them, you are at a disadvantage: they can watch you and monitor you from the high tops and surprise you at a time of weakness. The valley is terrifying because it is first a place of war and battle. 

When I started my transition/ walk into my very own valley (when I thought of custom fit that is really not what I had in mind because there's nothing glamorous about the valley but anyway...), I started looking through the Bible of symbols of the valley and this is probably the first one I stumbled upon: the valley as a place of battle. I went to 1 King 20 which is the story of the war between the kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Syria. The most important, I would even say crucial, verse in that story to me is verse 28: "And a man of God came near and said to the king of Israel, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Because the Syrians have said, 'The Lord is a god of the hills but he is not a god of the valleys,' therefore I will give all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am the Lord." Now let me give you the background to put that verse in context: the King of Syria sent messenger to Ahab, King of Israel, requiring from him to give away his silver, gold, wives and children, which Ahab refused. And so, he gather people to go on an excursion against the Syrian army and their King. The people marching with Ahab defeated the Syrian army and Ben-Haddad, king of Syria, fled. After that defeat people came to him saying that Israel had won because they fought on the hills and if they were to fight in the valleys, the Syrian army would certainly win. And so the Syrian army when against Israel in the valley and still, was defeated. This verse is important because of two things: 

 1- It speaks of the unchanging nature of God

 God is as much God in the valley as He is on the mountain. My experience in the valley is that we tend to see God as something different and less powerful/ glorious than what we experience on the mountain. Yes we do get to experience God in ways we probably don't know before but ultimately He is still that same God. It doesn't matter how high the mountains we stand on are or how low the valleys we walk through are: God is still God no matter where we stand;

 2- God can still give us the victory in the valley 

The thing with being in the valley is there is sometimes that "oh this cannot get better" mood that seeps into our soul and our morale. But this verse is here to remind us that no matter how deep the valley we walk through is, if our enemies come against us to surprise us at our weakest, God will deliver us from them because he is the God of the mountains as well as the God of the valleys. He created them both and the is sovereign over both of them and victory is independent of where we are, but exclusively dependent on God. And if you have followed me long enough then you are familiar with that say that I really love: "God always win".

After finding that first symbol of the valley I kept turning the pages of my Bible and of course did more research only and found two more symbols that I combined as one : the valley of Baca which translates into "weeping/sorrows" and the valley of the shadow of death. I chose to combine those two because they are symbols both found in the book of Psalms that was written by King David. If being attacked by your enemies is not scary enough then reading death and sweeping/sorrows in the same sentence should do. The valley sometimes comes with an isolation and a silence (sometimes from God) that can be deafening and deadly to us. It is a place where we get stripped of things/people we have sometimes carried for years, we hold close to our hearts, or that we believe we can't live without. But it is the place where God wants to take all of that away in order for us to be where He needs us to be. And that part not only is painful but it is uncomfortable. And sometimes God has not other choice but to shake us in order for us to overcome the giant of comfort because He realizes that the gentle nudges don't work out so well. It is the part where we are tested: everything that we are, everything we believe in.  And sometimes despite our best attempts to reach out to God, all we seem to hear back is the echo of our own voices. Things, people and situation that threaten us and everything that God has planned for us come from everywhere but, no matter how much we "text" or "call" God, it feels like He constantly sends us to voicemail, worse: like He ghosted us. 

But David said two things that stand true with regards to the valleys he went through and I'm sure some of us went through/are going through. He said "When I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil for you are with me" (Ps 23:4) and then to add about the valley of Baca "As they go through the Valley of Baca they make it a place of springs, the early rain also covers it with pools." (Ps 84:6) Our experience of the valley is not turned around by our own strength or our willingness to see things change but through the presence of God with and withing us. Jesus says in John 7:38 " Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." The living water revives us in the time where we are weak, brings consolation in our afflictions and hope as we walk through the valley. Our strengths are and ability to keep moving are renewed and restored. The valley of Baca and the valley of the shadow of death are where we experience the faithfulness of God and the intimacy of a deep relationship with him, away from the distractions that we would have on the mountains, in the times were everything is going well, the times were we are comfortable. And as much as God tries to attract us away from the noise we're surrounded with while comfortable, the valley also come with an internal noise that can drown God's voice or have Him decide to be silent until we finally are quiet enough - both inside and outside- to hear Him in the soft murmur He speaks in (1 King 19:11-13) and give us the game plan. 

I kept the best one for last because this is an aspect of the valley I didn't really know about until I started looking into the scriptures to write this article. The valley as a place of Praise (2 Chronicles 20). When you go through the valley the last thing you want to do is praise God but it is in fact the thing to do and what brings about victory and a breakthrough. It sounds counter-intuitive but it is the thing to do considering that the valley is about faith thus challenging logic and intuition. Our intuition might want us to panic, to surrender or to find shortcuts to get out of the valley before the time appointed by God but faith is sticking the course of it, knowing that beyond what we see there is something bigger. Faith in the valley is similar to praising God in the hallway until the door He promised He would open, opens. Faith is trusting God to carry us through the valley no matter how long the journey and finding the strength to pray asking for the resources we need for the journey instead of saying "God take away from me that journey." 

In conclusion, both the mountain and the valley reveal characters of God we ought to know if we want to develop a deep relationship with Him. The valley is the intimacy of the darkest hour where all of who we are is revealed and we get to write other names of God we were not familiar with in the story of our lives.  Both the mountain and the valley are places that are necessary for us to go through in order to get familiar with God in ways that all fit together in His grand scheme of life for us. So maybe the issue is not really where we look for God, whether it be the mountain or the valley, but how we look at Him in the places He invites us to meet Him.

I hope this article encourages someone and if you are going through the valley: keep going because as my sister once said : "beyond fear and hopelessness, there is something bigger"

Until next time,

The Happiness Fairy 👸