A great lesson of life in the valley is that we cannot do this alone.

Suffering stretches us beyond our capacity to control or understand. Pain gets our head swirling, our stomachs churning, and our hearts crying out for help.

Jesus is that help. He is our caretaker, our provider, and our protector. He doesn’t take care of us by eliminating the struggles. He overcomes the struggles by the care of his presence.

In the valley, we often try to cling to our own understanding. We try to scrape and claw at control. But the valley informs us that we are not in control. Our pain drives us to reality, the reality that we are dependent.

Our sorrow can turn to fear. But the mysteries of the cosmos are only a cause for fear if we do not know Him to whom the cosmos belong. Jesus is the God of all things. And he cares for us. Our circumstances may show us just how little we can control, just how much we do not understand. But they can never disqualify us from trusting the one who does know.

To do so, we have to lay down our misguided attempts at control. We have to trust in a God beyond our understanding. This is what it means to cast our cares upon Him. Recognizing that Jesus is in control is the key to living in troublesome circumstances. We are not in it alone.

“Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.”
– 1 Peter 5:6-7