Even Though

Last year, as I was saying my farewells to the team I had spent three years working with, I saw a bookmark on a pinboard:
Fear says ‘what if’
Faith says ‘even though’

I know that it has been particularly tough in recent years for all of us, and let’s be honest, it’s still tough. Covid-19 brought into our worlds a new level of fear and anxiety. We have seen significant wars raging on our TV screens: Ukraine, Palestine, Iran, not to mention the conflicts that we in our corner of the world are unaware of. Global and even local politics have had a real shake-up. It is becoming increasingly difficult to make our money stretch to cover the basics.

In this landscape of fear and difficulty, Scripture speaks a comforting and grounding truth.

A passage that is well known and often used as a psalm of comfort at funerals or similar events is Psalm 23. Verse 4 highlights for us this image of faith in the ‘even though’:

Even though I walk
through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil,
for You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff,
they comfort me.

Imagine the writer saying: ‘What if I walk through the darkest valley?’ Can you see the change? There is a confidence in the ‘even though’ and a timidity or uncertainty in the ‘what if’.

Even though things are tough, even though I feel alone, even though it feels dark, I won’t fear. Why? Because You are with me.

I need to hear and be reminded of that often, when things start to get bigger than they really are and I feel overwhelmed. Even though they feel overwhelming, I have faith enough to say, ‘But Lord, You are with me!’

May you live with the steady faith and confidence that God is with you in every ‘even though’.

Major Stuart Tong
Territorial Secretary for Mission