THE DARKNESS OF BROKEN PLACES

This week I heard someone speak of a deep disappointment, a hurt, a broken place in his heart and how very deep that place had become.  You see deep places can come in an instant but they also can come as we free-fall plunge ever deeper into the darkness—The Dark Night of the Soul.  It is as St John of the Cross (1542-1591) observed, it is the soul journeys deeper into the excruciating dark night that there can be hope—a hope for escape.  Such escape is in the divine union with the love of God. 

It was in that broken place that something wonderful happened.  It was there that God met him—not in some emotionally charged event, but quietly and deeply—in the deep places of his heart, God was there but then God was there before he arrived in his darkness and was there long after he left and before the next soul would descend into that depth of that darkness.

If you think about it, in each of our lives there are deep emotional hurts, places that are not just bruises, scrapes, or cuts but deep hurts that plunge into the very deepest places of our hearts and lives.  They plunge as a knife into the very center, the secret interior places of our lives, carving its way through our beliefs, suppositions, and confidences.  

It is not that such a knife cuts deeply and alone but with it comes ever more darkness into the mounting darkness.  It creates a hurt beyond words to describe or feeling to cry.  

Left unacknowledged and unchallenged these darkened hurts grow ever deeper.  Soon they are so deep into our hearts and lives that it is impossible for us to make our way out.  It is as though we are in the darkness of midnight seeking our way out of a maze of feelings and confusion.

To compound our hurt, for whatever reason they can go unacknowledged and thus avoided by ourselves and unrecognized by those closest to us.  They grow ever deeper—our hearts grow ever darker.  

Perhaps you can understand not from some distant place but from the journey within your own heart and life.  Perhaps you can understand that in the darkest of emotional nights, it is hard to believe that there can be light, much less that you will ever see the light.  Perhaps you can understand that it is in the dark night of the soul that lonesomeness and loneliness permeate and saturates and that with a snarling vengeance—the vengeance of a predictor upon a wounded sufferer.

Also know that the emotional crevices of our lives no matter how deep and how dark are, as noted, actually places where the Lord is seeking to be there.  No matter how deep the hurt, God’s love is ever deeper.    

Why is that love in the dark places?  It is and was there all along.  It is like an unseen friend, nearby but unseen.  It is now seen because it is in those places life as we know it is stripped away.  We then can face the harsh reality of our situation(s) and face the questions of “Without all the trappings, who am I?” and “What am I?”  

However, if we will stop for a moment and in that moment savor the taste of being stripped of ourselves there is something else we can find.  That something else is a sweet new reality—the sense of the reality of otherness.  It is in that otherness that we sense the presence of God.  It is then that there is a new opportunity for life, maybe not as it was before but life.  From the darkness of what was alive now comes new life—life in Christ.

Putting Psychological Bandages on Spiritual Hurts

Some will see the following as condemning, however it should be taken more in the spirit of a warning.

 

The services of Balaam were engaged to curse Israel as they are in the process of claiming the Land of Promise.  There is a fair amount of give and take and then we find Balaam’s word, actually a question, “Must I not be careful to speak what the Lord puts in my mouth?”  Note two things.  Balaam uses the relational, covenant name for God.  Thus but implication, He is not a distant, uncaring, and uninvolved God.  Then also and of course his message to include this question was found objectionable by those to whom he was speaking.  There was of course further discourse which we will consider in just a moment.

Then we travel the years of time and pages of the Scriptures into the life of the Apostle Paul and his letter to the Pastor Timothy.  He writes, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.”

We live in such a time and in this time there is extreme and eternal danger that is unseen by most.  It is the danger of living in a day when the world and its ways have impregnated what we call the “church.”   It is not just one congregation here or there but it is to be found in the many, many options out there which call to those who care to listen.  The call is not to salvation and godly living but to come and be completed, be fulfilled, be emotionally warmed, and so much more that can only be classed as therapeutic in tone and temporal in nature. 

What of the Scriptures?  The Scriptures that have for 6,000 years convicted men of sin and selfishness and pointed all who listen to their truths the way to relationship with God.  What of those Scriptures?  They are now employed in a pleasing, affirming, and devotional manner with the result that little changes.  The darkened heart, bruised by sin and selfishness, hears a message that puts emotional bandages on deeply spiritual hurts.

Of course predominately, the founding and developing of mental health is without a spiritual/religious component by those who opposed faith.  Thus though helpful on a mental-emotional level they often do not penetrate the darkened soul.  It only stands to reason then that such “ministry” as is being described has little lasting effect and in fact is not unlike what one might find in the psychology and therapy rich culture of our time. 

Certainly such “church” is comfortable and even comforting.  However such comfort simply means that the “truth” presented does not stress the attendee at his need points, those points of imperfection.  Thus spiritual needs go unidentified, unchallenged, and therefore there is no change—repentance is no longer stressed, holiness is relegated to the dustbin of the irrelevant doctrine, righteousness is now living in harmony with myself, and the list of difficulties these attitudes bring goes on and on—compounding one another!

Thus the “church” has lost its impact not just on those who attend but also upon the community in which it is situated. Note too this thought.  As what it means to be a part of “church” has changed, the name “Christian” has changed.  Even so hear the words of Balaam.  “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it:  Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?” 

In these words that reflect the character and nature of God we find a certain consistency and changelessness.  Note too that the word has changed from Lord to God—the all powerful majestic name.  When we maintain that thought and reengage with the matter of the “church” we find a disturbing concern.  It the “church” has changed and God has not, so what is to become of the “church?” 

Time is the great test and if you will care to notice more than one “humanistic” centered congregation has gone out of business.  However, there are those who have not given in, those who are still the Church, those who still proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and who uphold the Lord’s standard.  Though not perfect, they continue to believe, teach, and minister to the deeper needs of man and do so in the truth.  They would tell you as I do in this writing that to suppose a different Gospel is to tempt the possibility of an eternity in outer darkness with all who have not come to a saving faith found only in Jesus Christ!