When we don’t hear or feel God, it can feel like we’re forgotten. Or worse, that maybe we’ve fallen short of some spiritual standard that everyone else has attained.
After all, why then am I not feeling that amazing presence of God that others talk about?
In my current season of physical pain, I’m reminded one of the hardest seasons I’ve ever had to walk through- the year I spent in Canada, when ante and post-partum depression gnawed at my insides for 12 months.
But every sunrise, I’d force myself out of bed to walk for an hour in the woods, listening to sermons by John Piper. Even in my third trimester, even when it snowed, even when it felt like I was talking to God whom I couldn’t sense.
It was a friend who reminded me, that it’s in our dry seasons that we’re pushed to dig deeper. It’s in winter that our roots are forced to search more deeply. And that builds a foundation to prepare us for fresh seasons ahead.
In the Bible, there’s a story of a man named Job who loves God but had everything taken away from him. His “miserable comforters,” friends who told him he must have sinned etc, wrongly assumed his suffering was due to his own wrongdoing.
Friend, if you’re in a dry season, if you’re in physical pain and awaiting healing like me, or if you’re struggling in darkness, understand this-
Testing in the wilderness is hard, but press on. In winter, let your roots drive your faith deeper. Know that spring will come.
*this was recorded a while back, before I struggled with this pain. I hope this speaks to you the way it now speaks to me. 💛