WESTERN WISDOM Season 3, Episode 016 "A Walk Thru Jornada Del Muerto" audio podcast by award-winning western author Stephen Bly. Sponsored by BlyBooks.com Legacy Series.
"A Walk Through the Valley" blog post article found here: https://www.blybooks.com/2022/03/through-the-valley/
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A Walk Thru Jornada Del Muerto
Stephen Bly, 1993
Some time back I sat on a dusty trail at the western edge of the Organ Pipes Cactus National Monument in southern Arizona. Located on the border with the state of Sonora, Mexico, this monument is surrounded by some of the bleakest countryside anywhere.
This particular day I was staring to the west. I knew that a hundred and twenty or so miles away lay the town of Yuma. Between Organ Pipes and Yuma is nothing but desert. It would be a hazardous, difficult excursion even with today's conveniences. But what is amazing to me is that some brave souls had made that trip a hundred, even two hundred years ago. It is truly one part of the world that doesn't seem to be created for human habitation.
Like several other parts of the old southwest, this region was often called the jornadad del muerto or the journey of death. As I stared across the barren land, felt the heat radiating out of the soil, and viewed the wispy vapors of watery mirages, I wondered what on earth would propel someone to make that journey back in those old days?
Some went for conquest, some for missionary zeal, some for gold to head for the fertile valleys of California. Some looked to find family or start a family. And, of course, some of them survived, while others' bones bleached white by the blazing sun.
The pioneer roads west were seldom next to a cool, babbling stream, nor in the shade of tall, leafy cottonwoods. Whether you came west across the sands of southern Idaho, the sinks of central Nevada, or the deserts of Arizona, most every overland immigrant had to face their own jornada del muerto.
It seems to me that most of our spiritual lives have similar tough times to face also. In the Bible, David describes it this way, "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me" (Psalm 23:4).
For some, the journey of death has to do with failing health. For others, it's a bitter end to a once vital relationship. And for some, it's a matter of failed finances. We each have our own private desert. But, like with David, it need not be the last chapter of life. We will come out on the other side because there is One who goes with us, who comforts us. The One will take every step beside us on our jornada del muerto.