In the darkness of blind eyes, Paul resolved to live for Christ and became a father of the Church.In the darkness of the tomb, Lazarus was resurrected and became an example of new life in Jesus.In the darkness of a lions’ den, Daniel recognized God as the King of the beasts and became an evangelist to royalty.In the darkness of insomnia, Samuel recorded God’s voice and became a prophet.In the darkness of a fish’s belly, Jonah reconciled with God and became a missionary.In the darkness of midnight, Gideon realized his identity and became an invincible warrior.
And we achieve for ourselves a form of love, security or power that the wounded part of us desperately needs. We seek to be safe by any means necessary. The safest thing seems to be to hide the pain, perhaps behind a mask. We’ve been hurt, sometimes tragically, and we don’t know what to do with that injury. Darkness sets in long before we’re old enough to recognize it. If you’ve experienced it, you know what I’m talking about. Published by InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL. Taken from Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weepby Tish Harrison Warren Copyright (c) 2021 by Tish Harrison Warren. Inherited ways of prayer and worship-liturgical practices-are a way that the ancient church built cairns for us, to help us endure this mystery, to keep us on this path of faith, to guide us home. When I could not pray, the church said, “Here are prayers.” When I could not believe, the church said, “Come to the table and be fed.” When I could not worship, the church sang over me the language of faith. In times of deep darkness, the cairns that have kept me in the way of Jesus were the prayers and practices of the church. When the fog descends and the weather is dangerous, hikers can make it to shelter at the bottom of the mountain or at the top by walking from cairn to cairn in the white out. So the good people of New Hampshire have made cairns along the trail: massive, towering rock structures that plot the course.
On our hike, we thought we might be blown off the mountain (we have no photos from that day in which my hair is not blown entirely across my face).Īnd then there’s the fog, which settles so deep and thick that hikers have gotten lost and died. The wind is so strong that it once held the record for the fastest wind gust on earth. It can change from sunny and warm to snowing in a few hours. Years ago, during a vacation in New Hampshire, Jonathan and I climbed Mount Washington, which is notorious for erratic weather. Brian Kolodiejchuk, Image Books.Ĭairns and Inherited Ways of Prayer and Worship I long for God-I want to love Him-to love Him much…and yet there is but pain-longing and love. The torture and pain I can’t explain.” From my childhood I have had a most tender love for Jesus.but this too has gone.-I feel nothing before Jesus…You see, Father, the contradiction in my life. I help souls-to go where?-Why all this? Where is the soul in my very being? God does not want me.-Sometimes-I just hear my own heart cry out-“My God” and nothing else comes. This personal letter to a friend shows just how much she suffered:ĭarkness is such that I really do not see-neither with my mind nor with my reason.-The place of God in my soul is blank.-There is no God in me.-When the pain of longing is so great-I just long & long for God-and then it is that I feel-He does not want me-He is not there.-Heaven-souls-why these are just words-which mean nothing to me.-My very life seems so contradictory. Mother Theresa struggled for long periods of her life where she dealt with an acute spiritual darkness and depression. But as with each of us, there is a public side of our lives and a private side. Most of us know Mother Theresa for her stalwart ministry to the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta. “It’s the dark I’ve been afraid of darkness all my life.” One evening, a fellow writer named Elizabeth Bowen found him outside shaking with fear. Wells lived through the dark days of the Blitz in London (during the Second World War). The accomplished science fiction writer and futurist H.G.