If I'm a spiritual person my life should be pleasant, peaceful and fairly happy, right? What happens when we search, pray, look and listen and we don't hear or see anything to give us hope or peace or spiritual comfort? What happens when we talk to God and think he's left us altogether or isn't listening? We may be, in the words of St. John of the Cross, in the "dark night of the soul".
For the uninitiated, the "dark night of the soul" refers to those times in our lives when we talk to God, the universe, our higher power, etc... and feel like no one's listening or there for us. There's no comfort, no surety that we're being heard, no warm fuzzy feeling from connecting with that which we base our spiritual life on. We're adrift, lost and completely confused. It truly is "the dark before the dawn".
And as humans, we fight against that darkness for all we're worth. It's a frightening, confusing, scary place. There is no surety or comfort in it at all. Then there's the idea that if I'm living the "dark night of the soul", what did I do to get myself here? The answer is that you didn't "do" anything to get yourself here. You're exactly where you're supposed to be. It's just an uncomfortable place to be in right now.
So what do you do with this uncomfortable place that you find yourself in on your spiritual journey? GO WITH IT. Embrace it. Welcome it. And never lose faith or belief that after every dark night, there is a dawn. You just need to be patient and make it through the night.
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