My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest. Psalm 22:1-2
“This is the first and principal benefit caused by this arid and dark night of contemplation: the knowledge of oneself and of one’s misery. For, besides the fact that all the favours which God grants to the soul are habitually granted to them enwrapped in this knowledge, these aridities and this emptiness of the faculties, compared with the abundance which the soul experienced aforetime and the difficulty which it finds in good works, make it recognize its own lowliness and misery, which in the time of its prosperity it was unable to see.”
John of the Cross (1542-1591) in Dark Night of the Soul, excerpt from Chapter XII “Of the benefits which this night causes in the soul” (New York: Image Books, 1959) 37.
Ever feel all alone or forsaken. You cry out to God but He remains silent, and you find no rest.
When we go through such experiences, described fittingly by John of the Cross as a dark night of the soul, we gain a benefit. We learn about ourselves and about our misery various things we cannot see in times of prosperity.
And if we pause and ponder we discover such times really are a gift.
Prior experiences of abundance cause us as humans to look for those to be repeated. God supplied in one way, so we expect that to happen again. When it doesn’t we experience difficulty to persevere in good works.
The saints of old teach us through their writings from the lessons they learned.
We too can benefit if we pay attention. Let us give thanks for our lowliness and God’s greatness. For our misery and His might. For our limitations and suffering and His abundance and faithfulness.
That Jesus recounted today’s Scripture on the cross tells us that we can cry it too on hard days.
Likely I will get little rest tonight, crammed in the back of a full plane from Houston to São Paulo, Brazil. And with back pain and with challenges in various areas of my life, I could be tempted to despair.
But I have discovered the benefit and want to share it with you: from one lowly, miserable soul to another.
I have no idea when God will answer you or me or when we will find rest, but I know this. We learn priceless lessons about our abundant and faithful God in the meantime if we pay attention.
These lessons become treasures to enjoy and share. Thanks for your prayers for safe and pain-free travel. Lord have mercy.
Sometime after this posts I will arrive in São Paulo, Brazil, to attend a big missions conference as the ECFA Press books, The Sower, The Choice, and The Council which I co-authored will be released in Portuguese. Praise the LORD!