The Dark Night of the Soul

Had a dreaded interruption in internet service which has now been resolved and we're ready to get down to business. Apologies for the delay.

Here's the plan. First we need to take a look at the "wilderness experience" - something Jung called the Night Sea Journey and St. John of the Cross called the Dark Night of the Soul. It's real and it's necessary but it's nasty and painful which is why we get such an impoverished view of it from many pulpits despite the fact that the Scriptures are full of examples of it. Additionally, Biblical Counseling has, to some degree, reinforced the deprecation of this experience despite the rich and vivid portrayal of it in Scripture. The pure and simple fact is that we don't like it, we ignore it, we run and hide from it (or try to anyway), we deny it and, in the end, we are spiritually poorer for having done so.

It is archetypal and, as such, part of the human experience in all times and all places.

Once we have an honest, albeit brief, look at it and can see how our own lives might have been touched by it we can have a better idea of the despair Solomon had experienced prior to writing Ecclesiastes and the joy and resolve with which he embraced the light at the end of the tunnel.