Opening
These chapters plunge Much-Afraid into hard detours that look nothing like the path to the High Places. Guided and guarded by The Shepherd, she learns to surrender, to accept with joy, and to bear the cost of love—lessons that transform fear into trust and pain into purpose.
What Happens
Chapter 6: Detour into the Desert
After a scarring encounter with her cousin Pride, Much-Afraid leans more readily on Sorrow and Suffering until the path ends at a cliff. Her guides point down into a vast desert. Horrified, she calls for the Shepherd, convinced this contradicts his promise to take her to the High Places. He appears and calmly confirms the descent is his chosen way.
Crushed by what feels like an indefinite postponement of her heart’s desire, she hears him ask, “Do you love me enough to accept the postponement and the apparent contradiction of the promise, and to go down there with me into the desert?” Through tears, she yields. At his bidding, she builds her first altar, lays her “trembling, rebelling will” upon it, and watches a flame consume the offering. From the ashes, he gives her a small pebble as a memorial—her first stone. This obedience inaugurates the theme of Obedience and Submission to God's Will. The Shepherd himself accompanies the descent, singing of a “closed garden,” hinting at a hidden purpose within this hard path.
Chapter 7: The Furnace of Egypt
On the desert floor, the Shepherd names this place “The furnace of Egypt,” where all his servants pass through testing before royalty. He shows Much-Afraid a vision of the faithful—from Abraham to Joseph—and she recognizes her place among them, anchoring the theme of The Necessity of Suffering and Sorrow.
Inside a pyramid, she witnesses three lessons in Spiritual Transformation and Sanctification: grain bruised into bread for others; clay surrendered under the potter’s hands into a vessel; gold purified of dross while common stones become jewels in the furnace. Before they leave, a single golden flower blooms on the sand, sustained by rare drops of water. It calls itself “Acceptance-with-Joy.” Deeply moved, Much-Afraid resolves to embody this virtue and collects a second memorial stone.
Chapter 8: The Shores of Loneliness
At the edge of a great sea, the Shepherd announces he must leave them for a time but assures her he is always within call and that she must learn to hear and obey his voice. Now alone with Sorrow and Suffering on the Sea of Loneliness, Much-Afraid senses an inner shift—the self from the Valley feels like a stranger. She bears the “stamp of royalty” from the furnace and begins to notice beauty even in bleakness: white gulls, green breakers, shifting light.
In a desolate cove, she builds a third altar, offering her emptiness to be filled by the “flood-tide of Love.” Her Fearing relatives find her trail. Pride returns, bringing three new assailants—Resentment, Bitterness, and Self-Pity—who mock, accuse, and coax. Their psychological warfare grows relentless, testing her resolve to listen for the Shepherd’s voice.
Chapter 9: Victory and Another Trial
The attack intensifies. Pride sneers at her abandonment; Resentment slanders the Shepherd; Bitterness threatens more pain; Self-Pity croons sympathy. When Self-Pity uses the word “bruising,” Much-Afraid remembers the bread corn and, in sudden defiance, hurls a stone. Later, wandering alone, she is cornered on a narrow ledge. As Pride moves to seize her, she cries out. The Shepherd arrives, flings Pride into the sea, and scatters the rest. He explains their advantage came when she grew impatient and forgot to be “Acceptance-with-Joy.”
The path turns toward the mountains—then away again. Bitterness jeers. In fresh surrender, she builds another altar. The Shepherd appears and leads them across a vast estuary on a high causeway. The wind batters them; joy rises. She sings praises. On the far side, a spring-green wood greets them. There she discovers “Acceptance-with-Joy” rooting in her own heart. Another altar. She offers her whole heart, and he promises, “Now shalt thou see what I will do.”
Chapter 10: The Precipice of Injury
Buoyed by hope, Much-Afraid reaches the foot of the mountains—only to face a sheer precipice. A hart and a hind dance up a zigzag track that looks suicidal. Sorrow and Suffering indicate this is their path. She collapses, sure she cannot do it. Craven Fear appears to gloat and demands she return as his slave or plunge to her death attempting the climb.
Frozen, she cannot even call for help—until Suffering pricks her, and she cries out. The Shepherd comes laughing gently, not in scorn but in delight at what his grace will do through weakness. He names the mountain “Injury” and tells her she must learn the second letter in Love’s alphabet. After another altar of surrender, he ropes her safely between Sorrow and Suffering, gives her the “Spirit of Grace and Comfort,” and they begin. In a cave, a blood-red flower grows from the rock—“Bearing-the-Cost,” or Forgiveness. The next day, after a painful fall, she applies its lesson with the cordial and continues. They crest the precipice to the Shepherd’s welcoming song.
Character Development
Much-Afraid’s inner life turns from clinging obedience to willing, even joyful surrender. Stones in her pouch mark her covenant steps; flowers root in her heart.
- Much-Afraid: Moves from devastated compliance to “Acceptance-with-Joy,” then to “Bearing-the-Cost.” She learns to laugh with the Shepherd, trusts through contradiction, and begins to see herself as royal seed.
- The Shepherd: Reveals himself as wise, loving, and joyfully exacting—leading by detours that fulfill promises through transformation rather than shortcuts.
- Sorrow and Suffering: Shift from dreaded escorts to steady lifelines—firm, sure-footed, and at times forceful enough to save her when she’s paralyzed.
- The Fearing relatives (Pride, Resentment, Bitterness, Self-Pity, and later Craven Fear): Grow subtler and more invasive, personifying inner poisons that faith must expose and refuse.
Themes & Symbols
The path’s “contradictions” become the very means of holiness.
- The Necessity of Suffering and Sorrow: Desert, sea, and precipice act as training grounds that forge royalty of character. Hard places aren’t detours from glory; they are its doorway.
- Obedience and Submission to God's Will: Each altar marks a decisive surrender that unlocks the next stretch of the way. Yielding precedes rising.
- Spiritual Transformation and Sanctification: Threshed grain, pliant clay, and refined gold chart a movement from usefulness to beauty to glory.
- Overcoming Fear with Trust in God: Fear appears in many costumes; trust answers by calling on the Shepherd and acting on his word, even when the way looks “preposterous.”
Symbols that mark the journey:
- Altars: Concrete acts of surrender that become milestones on the way.
- Memorial stones: Small pebbles that witness God’s faithfulness at each altar.
- The desert (furnace of Egypt): Isolation and heat that refine motives and teach royal patience.
- The precipice of Injury: An impossible wall where forgiveness and endurance grow “hinds’ feet.”
- Flowers—“Acceptance-with-Joy” and “Bearing-the-Cost”: Virtues that root only in harsh soil and bloom into guidance for the next ascent.
Key Quotes
“Much-Afraid, do you love me enough to accept the postponement and the apparent contradiction of the promise, and to go down there with me into the desert?”
This question reframes delay as discipleship. The Shepherd invites love to express itself through obedience, making the descent itself a gateway to the promise.
“Now shalt thou see what I will do.”
After renewed surrender, the initiative shifts to divine action. The promise undercuts self-reliance and teaches her to expect deliverance on God’s timetable and by his unexpected means.
“Bread corn is bruised...” (Isaiah 28:28)
Bruising becomes nourishment. The image explains why pain can feed others when offered to God.
“Behold, as the clay is in the hand of the potter so are you in my hand.” (Jeremiah 18:6)
Surrender, not striving, shapes the soul. The potter’s authority and care make submission safe.
“...I will refine thee in my fire...” (Isaiah 1:25; Malachi 3:3)
Refining fire does not destroy; it reveals. The furnace exposes dross and discloses the jewel, mirroring Much-Afraid’s growth through trial.
Why This Matters and Section Significance
These chapters codify the pattern of the whole journey: a hard turn, a crisis, a cry, an altar, a new lesson, and fresh strength. The contest shifts from escaping external enemies to unmasking inner ones—resentment, bitterness, self-pity, and fear—and learning love’s alphabet: begin with “Acceptance-with-Joy,” proceed to “Bearing-the-Cost.”
By detouring into deserts and up impossible cliffs, the Shepherd keeps his promise in a deeper register: he does not merely take Much-Afraid to the High Places; he makes her fit to live there. The result is not grim endurance but a surprising companionship—where fear loosens, joy rises on the wind, and even at the edge of the precipice, she learns to laugh with her Lord.