Pastor’s Weekly Email

November 29, 2008

Send comments to: mailto:scotpeg1@earthlink.net

The Dark Night of the Soul

I have been in something of a “blue-mood” today. I don’t know what is behind it because there doesn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary occurring in my life and my ministry.  There has been restlessness around my sleeping patterns and that creates an aura of fatigue even before I start the day.  I have searched my heart and spirit trying to get at the source of this sudden dark night of the soul, and I find the process futile.

As a pastor, I see these same symptoms in people all the time especially around the holidays. It seems that “low days” or even “low weeks” are part and parcel of the human landscape. It happens even to the spiritually strong.  I think of the Old Testament prophet Elijah who after winning a great battle against the prophets of Baal proving the power of the One God over the pagan gods of Jezebel went into a rather deep depression.  As a matter of fact, he sat under the shade of a “broom tree” and asked the Lord to let him die.

The response of God to this depression-filled request is a wonderful prescription for those times when we find ourselves in the dark valleys of everyday life.  First of all, the Lord allowed him to rest, to sleep.  I think we all are aware that we are never ourselves whenever we are sleep-deprived and physically worn.  The fatigue of body plays havoc with the mind and the heart.  Perspective gets skewed when we are looking out on the world with weary eyes.  Elijah had just fought a physically wrenching battle against the prophets of Baal and needed to recoup his strength through the healing power of rest and sleep.

I think that is one of the reasons I have found myself in the midst of a spiritual desert these past few days.  I have been struggling with some heart challenging issues in the congregation, and like Elijah I am in need of perspective-restoring rest.  Do you remember how it says in the Shepherd’s Psalm (Psalm 23) that the Lord “makes us to lie down in green pasture and leads us beside still waters?” This is how the Lord “restores our souls.”  God “restores our souls” through the gift of rest and renewal.  That’s what the Lord gave to Elijah under the broom tree and that is what the Lord offers us if we are to emerge from the dark night of the soul.

The Lord also gave to Elijah good food to eat.  The Lord gave him rest and the Lord gave him food.  Elijah had been so caught up in the battle with the prophets of Baal that he probably didn’t take care of his nutritional needs.  He was weak from lack of sleep and he was weak from lack of proper food.  How can we battle the enemies of the spirit if we are physically weak?

The Lord is saying to all of us who confront the dark night of the soul that we must take care of our physical needs with proper rest and nutrition.  There is a close connection between the body, and the mind and spirit.  Depression is often the result of physical struggles and the fact that we aren’t properly caring for ourselves physically.

I have been thinking that perhaps my recent spiritual slump is the result of the physical stress that my body has been through with all the diagnostic tests of this past year. Coming to terms with a physical ailment creates many opportunities for the mind to take you down rabbit holes of depressive thoughts.  Perhaps I am in one of those rabbit holes now.

God gave Elijah rest and food to strengthen his body.  Those were the first two steps in the healing of his depressed spirit.  The final step was to send Elijah to Mt. Horeb, which was also known as Mt. Sinai. Why did he have Elijah travel to this mountain in the wilderness -- because that was the place where God had always seemed most present to the people of Israel.  It was there that Moses received the Commandments and spoke directly to God. And it was there that Elijah heard the encouraging voice of God reassuring him that in spite of the events around him, Elijah could count on God’s faithfulness as his source of strength and help.  By going to Sinai Elijah was rekindling the spark of God’s spirit in his soul by remembering how God had been faithful in the past and could be trusted to be faithful in the future.

We need to recapture that faith when we find ourselves in the dark night of the soul. We need to be reminded that God never abandons us even as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. God is present with us in the valley as well as on the mountaintop of our life experiences. So even now, during this mini-dark night of the soul through which I am struggling, I am constantly praying for God’s grace and help and I am trusting that God will hear and respond.  I am sensing his hand reaching down in the midst of the darkness and pulling me back up to the light of hope and peace.  I pray that God will do the same for you when you find yourself in the dark night of the soul.

COMMENTS

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