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Fear of the In Between-Rachael Gregson

 



I really love how St. John started the first book off with explaining the usual transgressions that baby Christians fall prey to-not to talk down condescendingly on any of his readers who may be new to the church but to instead gently warn them as a fellow believer who has been in that position before and holds the right to teach such matters. These seven sins that he goes on to introduce are pride, sloth, envy, greed, lust, gluttony (Okay, okay, St. John. I'm putting down my Snickers bar now), and anger. Moreover, they do not just happen because they are 'natural human characteristics, innately bred into humans'. Rather, they happen because a believer has neglected something in their personal walk and relationship with God. 

St. John then goes on to tie these in with what he calls the "dark night of the soul." As soon as that phrase was mentioned, I immediately thought of a quote made by Ram Dass, which was, "The dark night of the soul is when you have lost the flavor of life but have not yet gained the fulness of divinity. So it is that we must weather that dark time, the period of transformation when what is familiar has been taken away and the new riches is not yet ours."

In short, humans are scared of the unknown, but we would rather fling ourselves headlong into the unknown if it meant not having to wait. Because simply put: we humans hate waiting more than anything, which is quite laughable since our Father in Heaven ironically prefers to work over time despite having the ability to call things to an attention in a second. 

The "dark night of the soul" is basically our journey to growth. We try to rush our healing like a child wishing the night to be over on Christmas Eve, expecting it to come so easily, when in reality, that is far from what's going to happen. Our waiting period is actually a gift that we get to go through. It is during our waiting that God is able to clean our soul from all fleshly desires and instead point us into the direction of His Spirit. Rome was not built in a day. 

I commented on posts by Abbie and Logan.

Comments

  1. Lily CaswellApril 13, 2021 at 9:10 AM

    Very true, Rachael. I know that personally, if I had to take a proverbial leap of faith if it meant not having to wait, I would probably do it in a heartbeat. God has His own timing for everything and we have to realize that. We have to be patient because God has a plan for everyone and everything.

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