Some Kind Of CrazySample

Even Though

There is a place in the Australian outback called the “Never Never” It’s a tough, barren place with stifling heat, scorpions, deadly snakes, and desolation. You’ve got to be very careful when you go to the Never Never. It’s not a place for the weak of heart.

The Psalmist tells us there is a similar place God’s people enter sometimes. It’s called the “Even Though.”

“Even though I walk through the valley,” we read in Psalm 23. The “even though” is a place of trial and difficulty:

Even though you’re in a psychiatric hospital.

Even though you’re struggling in your marriage.

Even though your finances aren’t working.

Even though you’re chronically ill. 

Even though you are in a time of difficulty and desolation, God will set a table before you. In fact, the greatest table that we’ll ever feast at is set in that stark land of the even though.

When I first went into the even though, I didn’t look for a table, I looked for a way out. I didn’t realize there would be times in life where God would cause me to lay in weakness. A time when he taught me that even in the valley there can be a table. 

If you are in the even though right now, look for a table. It comes in the strangest times and the strangest places. It comes in the way you run to Scripture and suddenly it nurtures you in ways it never did before. It comes in a song, or in the moment you realize each sunset is a gift from God. It comes when you realize that there is a table in the even though where your cup will overflow all the days of your life, even the next time you go to the even though.

I used to think the only way I could meet God was in strength, in the good land, in the happy times, when everybody was celebrating me. I have found that instead there is a table set before me in the land of the even though. While my enemies may be telling me that God doesn’t love me, this table is the proof that he loves me—and you—with an everlasting love. Even in the even though. 

What “even though” are in you right now? Say Psalm 23 out loud and replace the first part of verse 4 with your circumstance: “Even though [your circumstance], I will fear no evil….”

 We hope this Plan encouraged you.  Learn More about Some Kind of Crazy  by Terry Wardle.