The Dark Cave: Wisdom for Dark Nights of the SoulSample

Feeling Alone and Forgotten by God

Faith is a dark night for man, but in this very way it gives him light. —John of the Cross

A few years ago, the area where I live got hit with the worst winter storm in over one hundred years. We had single-digit temperatures and loads of snow and ice that took out our state’s power grid, leaving millions without heat for days.

On the second day without power, when it got down to forty degrees in my house, I pulled out my flashlight and started digging deep into a dark storage closet for more warm clothes. I found all sorts of amazing winter gear I’d completely forgotten about because I never needed it where I live.

Sitting there in the glow of that flashlight, I started thinking about the last few years. If I’m honest, I’ve felt like one of those jackets -- forgotten in God’s closet for a while. I’ve been patiently waiting for Him to use me in a big way, but in the meantime, time is ticking away and I’m not getting any younger here. I kind of wonder if one day He’ll flip the light on, look in the closet, and go “Oh, hey, Joël! You’re still in here? Sorry, bro. I forgot about you!”

If we’re honest, I think we all come to a place in our spiritual walk when we feel a little alone. We all wonder if God set us aside for a season and then completely forgot we were there. Do you see me down here, God?

I’m convinced that these times of feeling forgotten or abandoned – times when God seems silent or cold—are all part of a pattern in God’s work in our lives. He isn’t doing it to be mean, it’s actually part of the process of making you into who He knows you can be.

In my book, Connecting the Dots: What God is Doing When Life Doesn’t Make Sense, I talk about how God is always at work in our lives, but most of the time we can’t see it or understand it. It’s only further down the road of life that we can look back and see that His hand was guiding us.

The Apostle Paul makes a pretty confident proclamation when he says, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28) As followers of Christ, we can be confident that in every season of life -- even if we don't understand exactly what He’s doing – God is working all things for his purposes. Which means God is leading you right now, right in the middle of the silence.

And God seems to have a very specific pattern to the way He leads us.

In Psalm 23, the psalmist said our Shepherd leads us in “paths of righteousness.” The Hebrew word used for path (magol) has a complex interpretation that means something closer to paths made of circles. Sheep tend to struggle to make it straight up a hill, so a shepherd leads them gently in circular paths—like a spiral—up the hill.

I’m convinced that God’s work in our lives tends to look more like an ever-widening circle than a straight line. It’s pretty common to find ourselves circling back to time frames, places, and experiences and thinking, this again? But each time we come back around we look different and God looks different.

I also believe that there are some really specific stages He takes us through each time around the circle. One of those stages is where He gets really quiet as He leads. It’s all part of the process. In this devotional, I want to look at what I call the Dark Cave and others have called Dark Nights of the Soul or dry seasons. My goal is to help you see that God is still with you and leading you even in these challenging times of spiritual dryness and loneliness.

I want to help you see that it’s all part of the process that God is taking you through, a process that looks something like the pattern below (which I’ll talk more about as we go).

So for today, I want to ask you to consider something. Are you feeling alone or abandoned by God right now? If so, is it possible that God’s silence might not be a sign of disapproval, but rather of His confidence in you? Is it possible, this season is part of a process He is working in you to sanctify you and conform you more to His image? I believe it is.

Pray and express your feelings to the Lord today. Be honest. He can handle it. Then let’s move forward and look at how we can trust God is with us even in the Dark Cave.