Springtime! It’s a Comin’!
Lately, I’ve spoken with people who report experiencing what St. John of the Cross described as “the dark night of the soul,” a time of spiritual crisis when God seems absent. During this time, a believer often feels abandoned by the One in whom he or she has placed deepest belief. “Dark nights” are bleak, lonely times that shake the very foundations of faith.
When I think of the “dark night of the soul,” I’m reminded of winter. Not like a balmy winter in Arizona, Florida, or Southern California. More like winter in the north central region of Montana where I spent the first 18 years of my life.
Or, as we’ve watched on the news lately, the epic and heartbreaking winter storm in Texas!
Montana winters I recall were harsh and inhospitable. Temperatures dipped well below freezing most days. Fierce winds created what the weatherperson dubbed the ‘wind-chill’ factor, making already frigid temps feel some 20 degrees colder. The ground was frozen solid. Naked, seemingly lifeless trees shivered. A blanket of snow, once fluffy white, became tattered, a ghastly shade of gray.
Then, ever so slowly, winter transitioned into springtime.
Bit by bit, Spring emerged. Temperatures climbed. Soil thawed. Colors emerged. Life budded forth on barren branches. Hope dawned.
Suddenly, the miracle of springtime was on full display. Joy abounded. Even birds couldn’t stop whistling happy tunes.
Emerging from a “dark night of the soul” often happens in much the same way.
A lone tree shivers in the bleakness of winter
Mark Buchanan, in his book, Spiritual Rhythms, uses the metaphor of seasons to describe spiritual growth. I love the picture he paints of the soul’s movement from the darkness of winter into the renewal of spring.
“God’s springtime begins with renewal within you. The renewal comes out of dryness and wilderness…bywords for crisis (such as loss and grief)…the crisis makes your heart bitter soil or frozen ground, too hard or too parched or too leached to nourish any seed to life…
And then one day it breaks, suddenly and everywhere at once. And the only way you can explain that is God did it. God acted. God intervened…” (added note mine)
The lone tree awaits hopefully the emergence of spring
I’m sure many reading these words agree it feels like we’ve been in a long winter season. For almost a year we’ve endured the uncertainty of a virus, isolated to a point which even the staunchest introvert finds troubling. We’ve been horrified, saddened, and confused by racial and political tensions. Congregations of believers have been bitterly divided, some leaving their faith communities because leadership decided to follow, rather than defy, government guidelines. Others exit because leadership won’t go further to protect congregants.
Uncertainty, isolation, violence, death, division. Any one of these crises is soul-draining. The combination can lead even the most stalwart believer to question whether this season will ever end.
I’m pretty tired of the long societal winter we’ve endured and anticipate springtime. I look forward to viewing this season through the rearview mirror, realizing despite darkness, despair, and division something significant was taking place below the surface.
I once read the most important work in a tree’s life is that which occurs deeply within its trunk during cheerless winter months. Perhaps it’s the eternal optimist in me, but I believe a deep, internal, unseen spiritual work has been taking place within individual and collective souls during the past few months. I can hardly wait to see the results!!
If it feels as if your spirit has been stuck in a dark place, enduring a long, hard winter, I hope my words of encouragement and Ron’s photographs kindle hope along with this reminder:
Springtime! It is a comin’, friend!
