The Dawning Of Our Souls - What We Find in the Dark

“Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again—my Savior and my God!” (Psalm 42:11, NLT)

If you’re like me, you may have lamented that your spiritual formation didn’t prepare you for the dark night, but that may not be entirely true. Jesus’ own crucifixion, Jesus’ suffering, Jesus’ own dark night of shame and suffering forms us, shapes us, saves us, and meets us in our dark nights.

God sent his Son. They called him Jesus. He lived. He suffered. He died to take away our sins. He befriended the isolated, the grieving, and the afflicted. He sat cross-legged with the downtrodden and the dark-nighted. He heard their stories. He asked them pointed questions. He drew near to the lonely, the confused, the doubting, the ones with hearts so heavy they could not rise from their mats, the ones who lost everything, the ones who were afraid to dream again, the ones just trying to find a new way forward. And in his own, ultimate dark night on the cross, the Savior screamed to the Father, God, where are you?

At the hour of greatest silence, at his most afraid, in his own dark night, when God’s presence only seemed like absence, Jesus, who is one with the Father, was never, never, never, never abandoned, not truly. And if true for Jesus, then by faith—even faith as modest and brittle as a breadcrumb, even faith that feels as far away as the moon—this is also true for us. For you. For me. Even though, in the dark night, we may feel like God’s presence disappears, it’s simply our ideas about God’s presence that do. And that sensation of withdrawal makes possible a new, paradoxical realization: Jesus is always with us.

“We live by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). This is also something the apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians, after a strenuous season of difficulty and conflict. Paul was pointing them to the Cross of Jesus—a suffering love. He was reminding them to hold onto their hope in Jesus even when they felt far away from God. He was reminding them that it’s in weakness, failure, humility, loss, sleeplessness and hunger, hardship and distress, trouble—it’s in the dark night—where and how we truly know Jesus. This is how we prove God.

What we find in the dark is that we have never been alone.

Who we find in the dark is Jesus.

As you read today’s Scripture, consider what it means that we always carry the death of Jesus in our bodies, so that the life of Jesus might be revealed in our bodies, and spend some time reflecting on how that promise can carry you through your dark night to hope in Christ. Thank God for sustaining you in your grief, loss, and dark nights, and for using these hard seasons to form you with a deeper sense of his love.

More Scriptures for Reflection: Psalm 42; 2 Corinthians 4:6-18; 2 Corinthians 5:7