Psalm 84:6 “As they pass through the valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs.”
The Atchafalya Swamp in Mississippi is a body of water stretching 120 miles long and 9 miles wide. It’s made up of swampland, bayous, and small grass marshes. This makes it a pleasant place for parasites, snakes and alligators. In the1800s, slaves who ran away would flee to such a place. You see, it was so awful no tobacco merchant, cotton trader, or hired foreman dared follow.
Mark Buchanan talks of a place called ‘borderland’ where many of us find ourselves. It’s not quite the Atchafalya Swamp, nevertheless it sounds pretty grim. He writes:
“Most Christians I know are stuck. We feel caught in jobs we barely endure and often despise, in relationships that plunder us and baffle us and deepen rather than remove our aloneness, in activities that are soul-wizening in their triviality and yet insatiably addictive. We squander jewels and hoard baubles. We experience harrowing emotions over mere trifles and can barely muster a dull ache over matters of shattering tragedy. We feel we’ve no time and no energy for the things that we know matter deeply, even eternally, but waste much time in silly and stultifying diversions. We gossip, even though we’ve made repeated resolves not to. We read People magazine, maybe even Playboy, and futureshop flyers, but not our Bible much. We feel that everyone else has more money, longer vacations, newer cars, nicer clothes, and fewer things going wrong with their hot water tanks, automobiles, and children than we do.”
In the verse above, we’re reminded that ‘Baca’ (or maybe ‘borderland’) doesn’t have to be a place of death. God’s people, who ‘dwell in your house…ever praising you…whose strength is in you’ (v4,5), can transform it into ‘a place of springs’, of blessing. That is in fact part of our job description. We are where we are for a reason. God wants to use us today, so let’s choose a good attitude and be available.
Lord, help me turn my ‘Baca’ into a blessing today. Amen!
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