In 2018 more than 6 million people visited the Grand Canyon. People spend a lot of time and money to go and gaze at its glory and grandeur, but then when they get there most only stay about 15 minutes.
“After all the expense, energy and time they get a 15-minute glance,” Ed Litton, pastor of Redemption Church, Mobile, told those present at the Southern Baptist Convention Pastors Conference in Birmingham on June 9.
That’s what Litton said he thought he wanted when it came to the valley of the shadow of death — just a quick glance.
But when his wife, Tammy, died in a tragic car accident in 2007, God invited him to hike through it instead.
‘Crushed in spirit’
“When I was standing at the trailhead of the valley of the shadow of death I was frightened; I was terribly afraid,” Litton said.
He asked, “Lord, how long is this going to take?” But God didn’t answer him, Litton said.
“The more I traveled with Him I discovered He is utterly faithful to us,” he said. “He draws near to those who are brokenhearted and crushed in spirit.”
As Litton saw more and more of God’s glory and grandeur, he told Him he could live in the valley forever “because and only because You’re with me.”
If you skip the walk, “the reality is you miss the beauty that is hidden in those dark trails of tears,” Litton said. “We miss the beauty and the God who says I will never leave you or forsake you.”
This “blessed condition” for those in grief and sorrow is “only possible because of the Lord Jesus Christ,” he said as he spoke on Matthew 5:4, “Blessed are those who mourn.”
But mourning in the Beatitudes doesn’t just mean grief because of the loss of a loved one or an ability or ministry.
“I’m talking about a greater kind of loss, the kind of loss when we drift from the Lord or depart from the Lord,” he said.
Godly sorrow is a paradox, he said. When Christians see their sin the way God sees it — how spiritually bankrupt they are — it leads to mourning.
True godly sorrow in repentance is “not a fantasy, it’s not a quick fix, it’s not an escape from reality,” he said — it’s a blacksmith in Christians’ hearts beating out the sin that keeps us from God. It’s this kind of repentance that can truly bring revival, Litton said.
“I’m becoming an old man but as a young man God called me to preach this gospel,” he said. “We need to stop just saying we want revival … we’ve got to start filling the hole in our repentance which brings what we long for.” (Grace Thornton)
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