It is very easy to assume that as believers, we can’t admit to being sorrowful because we find our joy completed in Christ. Surely, that can’t be the case, since weeping endures (i.e. lasts) for a night … And for some of us, morning hasn’t come. One songwriter asked, what becomes of the broken hearted, and us believers could easily chime in, hopefully with a response. That response could be derived from Today’s Holy Nougat.
Psalms 34:17-18 NIV
[17] The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles. [18] The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
God Hears and Delivers
Yes, siblings, you read it correctly, our God, YHWH, hears us when we cry out, and responds. So it isn’t that joy prevents pain. In fact, many times in the Bible, we note that the English transliteration uses rejoice instead of joy, which, based on the prefix, ‘re‘, suggests that we get our joy again. In other words, we may undergo pain, trials for a season – Job style – But, we can tap into God’s joy (see Psalm 30:5) even when the joy isn’t immediate.
Self-Check
How do we deal with heartbreaks? Do we expect God to respond when we cry out, or do we self-medicate?
Digging Deeper
Siblings, the struggle is real. And believers do get depressed. Some would say that Y’shua’s agony in the Garden that caused His body to ‘sweat blood‘ (see Matthew 27:46), was depression. If so, it suggests that you and I, who are fully human, may also face such abject pain. This is sometimes referred to as ‘the dark night of the soul’, based on a poem written by St John of the Cross, a 16th century Spanish mystic.
Psychologically, the dark night of the soul refers to a profound crisis of the spirit, identified by symptoms like _extreme emptiness, hopelessness, and disconnection from purpose, often accompanied by intense depression-like symptoms. Siblings please note, it is almost always defined as a spiritual crisis. It is as though it’s Job’s test in a different format.
While I don’t wish to focus for too long on the dark night, I think it is important for us to know more about it. A quick visit to Google AI provided more details. It may manifest as
Profound Emotional Despair: A deep,, often unexplainable, sense of sadness and hopelessness.
Loss of Meaning: A feeling that life has lost its purpose and that nothing is worth striving for.
Spiritual Emptiness: A, often terrifying, sense of disconnection from one’s faith or a higher power.
Isolation and Withdrawal: A strong desire to withdraw from social situations and isolate oneself.
Identity Crisis: A complete crumbling of one’s sense of self, resulting in feeling “lost” or “damaged”.
Physical Symptoms: Potential experiences of, intense, headaches, fatigue, and disturbances in sleep or diet.
Inner Conflict: A sense of being trapped, with intense,, persistent, emotional pain.
Google AI further indicated that it may be triggered by one or more of the following
Collapse of Life Meaning: The total breakdown of what once gave life purpose, such as career, achievements, or a personal, conceptual, or religious framework.
Severe Loss or Trauma: The death of a loved one (especially a child), divorce, a breakup, or a life-threatening illness.
Existential Crisis/Despair: A feeling that nothing makes sense anymore, resulting in profound, unexplainable, and often long-lasting misery.
Unresolved Trauma/Abuse: Deep-seated, long-term, unresolved childhood abandonment or emotional trauma that resurfaces.
Spiritual Purification: In Christian tradition, [for example], often, “supernatural” purging of the senses and spirit by God, aimed at breaking dependence on consolations to foster a deeper, selfless union with Him.
Social/Environmental Factors: Societal pressures and intense isolation, such as that caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The dark night of the soul can run its course as follows:
Deep personal trauma
Sense of hopelessness and despair
Deep agony
Revelation (including shortish uplifted and balanced lifestyle)
Some theorists identify other stages. It is worth noting that Revelation suggests that the dark night of the soul has ended, and rejoicing might begin at that time. This is biblical, for, at Creation, evening (the dark night) is followed by morning (see Genesis 1).
This revelatory moment occurs when we realise that God is near and that God cares and hears us in our despair. For Job, we would see this occurring in chapters 38-41, where God spoke to Job and his ‘friends’. Job’s experience reminds us that feeling alone in our agony doesn’t mean God is absent. It also assures us that after death, there is a resurrection.
So, even in our moments of distress, let us hold steadfast to this one guarantee, we can find joy again, the morning is not far away.
Point to Ponder
Psalm 121 begins with a reminder that when faced with the dark night of the soul, we can find strength to overcome by anchoring our hope in the Son of Righteousness, Y’shua.
Blessing
May we rejoice in Y’shua, Who is able to keep us and prevent us from falling, Who presents us before God’s throne by the power of God’s Spirit.
—
May all we seek be found in Christ
