Even Though

Two small words that carry us from a difficult circumstance to a confident outcome.

“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.” — Psalm 23:4 (NIV)

King David wrote those lines from his experience in his youth as a shepherd. Countless books have been written about Psalm 23. Other than Scripture itself, few have shaped how I read it more than W. Phillip Keller’s A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23.

But what gives those first two words their power?

Grammatically speaking, “even though” is what the textbooks call a concessive subordinating conjunction. That’s a lot of syllables for a simple idea: it introduces a circumstance that should lead to one outcome, and then doesn’t. Danger sits on one side of the comma. Trust answers from the other.

The Bible is full of “even though” moments, and I plan to spend the coming weeks writing about several of them, including some from my own life. Today, Simon Peter.

We find him in John 21. Weeks earlier, on a cold night in a courtyard, Peter stood warming his hands over a charcoal fire and denied three times that he even knew Jesus. The rooster crowed, just as Jesus said it would, and Peter “went outside and wept bitterly” (Matthew 26:75, NIV).

Now there is another charcoal fire, this one on a beach at daybreak. And Jesus is the one tending it, cooking breakfast for the man who denied Him (John 21:9-14). Even though Peter had denied knowing Christ, Jesus restored him to the calling on his life (John 21:15-19). Even though Peter carried shame and the sting of failure, Jesus forgave him and called him forward.

Isn’t that what He has done for each of us?

Even though we are sinners, God sent His Son to save us. “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9, NIV).

Even though. Two small words. Life-changing.

For Reflection

• What is your "even though" today?

• What do you need to ask Jesus for in that circumstance?

Prayer

Lord, many of us are walking through something hard right now. You are the Lord of the “even though.” Meet us in the valley, and teach us to trust Your presence more than we fear the shadow. Amen.