I am notorious for having a bad sense of direction. If I don’t have a GPS or someone with me that has some serious directional skills, I will be lucky to get home. Yet, there are still times when I can convince myself that this is not the case. For instance, one year before I took a group of students to camp, I went off by myself, which was my first problem, and went for a hike. It was a pretty long hike and I was really enjoying the scenery as I went, which was my second problem. You see, I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going. I was enjoying the deer that jumped across my path, I was peering off of the edge of the hill/ mountain (I was in Texas…it was a hill), and marveling at the butterfly that flew by my head. Before long I found myself deep in the woods, without a compass, with no cell phone coverage and…no water. Not very smart.
But still, I was relatively confident in my tracking skills (without real hard evidence that any such skill ever existed) and optimistic about finding my way back. So I turned around and hit the trail back. I was doing great, for awhile. Then I started looking at my surroundings and realizing, “I’ve never seen any of these land marks before.” I started to panic a little. No one really knew where I was and night was quickly approaching. If I was having trouble now, I would have REAL trouble once the darkness settled and I could see very little. I tried recalling episodes of Survivor or shows like 48 hours where people have survived extreme circumstances. But then I remembered that I don’t have any outside survival skills and quite honestly didn’t sit through an entire episode of these shows recently enough to make a difference.
The good news is, by God’s grace, I found my way back to a designated trail and eventually back to the camp before night came. Whew! If I had not, I would be wandering around in the dark, lost and pretty much hopeless. Have you ever had an experience like that before? Maybe it wasn’t being lost in a literal wilderness. But have you ever felt completely lost and not sure how to find your way out of a situation? Have you ever prayed to God to intervene but felt like…well…He ignored you? St. John of the Cross would call that your “Dark Night of the Soul”. Pretty cool terminology right? If you have ever been through it, you know that it is accurate imagery. You battle feelings of alienation, loneliness and abandonment. As a believer, you know that God exists but you wish for just a moment He would show Himself and get you out of the pit that you are in.
The question is: How do you get through the Dark Night? The answer is a lot more simple and uninteresting than we would like it to be. Trust and obey. Some of you just broke out into an old school hymn right there but I really believe that is the gist of it. As much as the Dark Night of the soul sucks, there are some things that I think God does through those times (not that it makes it any easier). Here are a few:
Rids you of Excessive Pride – When you have hit the bottom, there is no place to look but up right? Any misconceptions that you had previously are annihilated during this time. Be encouraged! It makes you more dependent on Christ. Which leads me to the next point…
Seeing Christ as Sufficient – Philippians 4:19 puts it this way: “And my God will supply all of your needs according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus.” Notice there is no promise of your riches or glory but according to His. The treasure that He is talking about is Jesus. Not deliverance from your problems or pain but that Christ is there in the midst of it. You are no longer seeing possessions or things as your savior but you are able to see the one true savior…Christ.
Brings you to a place of honesty with Him – Once your pride is stripped away and you have nothing else to lean on but God, it is really easy for you to confess your inability to help yourself before God. Not only that but you can confess your anger before Him. There are times when I have felt like shouting at God over something. Sure it isn’t a great prayer strategy but it is honest. God is a BIG God, He can take it. As long as you say you are sorry afterwards.
Gives You Endurance and Opens up New Possibilities
A few months ago, I contacted an old mentor of mine to update him on some things that I was currently going through. He was very encouraging and at the end of the email he signed it with “Press on…”. LOVE IT!!! He basically summarized Philippians 3:14 which says “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Notice how the goal is always Christ? But to get there you have to press on regardless of the circumstances. When you do that, God gives you endurance to face the next challenge. It is called perseverance and character. This ultimately makes you more like Christ which, again, is the goal. That is called “transformation”. Once you begin to live that way, God will open up new possibilities for you that you never dreamed possible. When your happiness is not contingent upon your circumstances you can do anything and glorify God! Amazing right?
In the moments where you can't tangibly feel God. Know this. He is there. Trust and obey, even in the times when you can't feel Him there and know that He will never leave you or forsake you. Peace.
