Dark soul of the night

Sharing by Abigail:

Dark soul of the night by Richard Foster (Celebration of Discipline)

(Note to Paul: I just thought this insight might help you with what you're going through. I personally have not witnessed this event Foster outlines - for now, I am still dealing with the sin in my life that occasionally gets me in despair - but if your conscience is clear, and you are truly trying to seek God, and no consolations from His Spirit come, perhaps this may be a good read for you :))

Dark night of the soul

Welcome it like how a sick person welcomes a surgery. The dark night is one of the ways God brings us into a hush, a stillness so He may work an inner transformation upon the soul.

When solitude (earlier in chapter defined as quietening ourselves with the intent of listening to God) is intentionally pursued, there is usually a flush of initial success n then an inevitable letdown - and with it a desire to abandon the pursuit altogether.

Feelings leave and there is a sense that we are not getting through to God.

St John of the cross said: "the darkness of the soul.. puts the sensory and spiritual appetites to sleep.. it binds the imagination and impedes it from doing any good discursive work. It makes the memory cease, the intellect become dark and unable to understand anything, and hence it causes the will to become arid and constrained, and all the faculties empty and useless. And over all this hangs a dense and burdensome cloud which afflicts the soul and keeps it withdrawn from God"

When this happens, we must be still. Every distraction of the body, mind and spirit must be put in a kind of suspended animation before this deep work of God upon the soul can occur. It is like an operation in which anaesthetic must take effect before the surgery can be performed. There comes inner silence, peace, stillness.

During such a time, bible reading, sermons, intellectual debate - all fail to excite us.

When God lovingly draws you into a dark night of the soul, there is often a temptation to seek release from it and blame everyone and everything for our inner dullness. The preacher is boring, worship service is dull and we may begin to look around to another church to get spiritual goose-bumps.

Recognize the dark night for what it is. Be grateful that God is lovingly drawing you away from every distraction so that you can see Him clearly. Rather than chafing and fighting, become still and wait.

I am not referring here to the dullness to spiritual things that comes as a result of sin or disobedience, but I am speaking of the person who is seeking hard after God and who harbours no known sin in His heart.

Isa 50:10 who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of His servant ..who walks in darkness.. yet trusts in the name of the Lord

It is possible to fear, obey, trust and rely on God and still walk in darkness and have no light.

St John of the cross:
"a person at the time of these darknesses will see clearly how little his appetites and faculties are distracted with useless and harmful things and how secure he is from vainglory, from pride and presumption, from an empty and false joy, and from many other evils. by walking in darkness the soul advances rapidly because it thus gains the virtues"

What should we do during such a time?

1st disregard the advice of well-meaning friends to snap out of it. they do not understand what is occurring. above all, do not try to justify why you are out of sorts. God alone is your justifier, and so rest your case with Him.

Hold in your heart a deep, inner, listening silence and there be still until the work of solitude is done.

St John again:

Oh then spiritual soul, when you see your appetites darkened, your inclinations dry and constrained, your faculties incapacitated for any interior exercise, do not be afflicted; think of this as a grace, since God is freeing you with your own activity.