June 6th, 2021: Spiritual Dryness

 

The rain yesterday was a welcome event for many of us in Southern Alberta. It had been so hot and dry for about ten days or so. Some of my farmer friends were praying for rain because it looks like a hot and dry summer. That will be disastrous for our province economically that we have a drought this summer. Alberta doesn't need any more bad news.


Spiritual dryness is another phenomenon that many people of faith have experienced during the last year. Somehow we discover how empty we are when we don't have to rush around. Our spirituality does not depend on other people's approval. Some pastors have struggled because they don't get their spiritual high on Sunday morning worship. Believers through the ages have had similar experiences.


St. Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1515) wrote about his experience of spiritual desolation, feeling distant from God, temptation, and removed prayer life. John of the Cross (1542-1591) realized the need for spiritual purification in book, 'Dark Night of the Soul.'


Maybe Covid-19 has become a blessing in disguise for many of us. We have had the time to reflect on the dryness of our souls. It is the dryness that brings no life, produces no fruit, and provides comfort to none. Our worship has been empty. Our prayer life is restless. We have no faith in dealing with what is unknown. We show contempt towards God. Our heart is indifferent towards God, and our spirit is wandering away from Him. Our mind experiences deadly boredom.


It is time to expect the downpour of God's spirit as we anticipate the recovery from this pandemic and seek to overcome the Darkness of Our Soul. Let us not go back to the same old routine and act as if we have not learned much from this experience. May our heart, mind, and soul be cleansed from all of the impurity of how we live our lives so that we might know what it means to live for God and others.


James 4:8 

"Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded."


Jeremiah 24:7 

"I will give them a heart to know Me, for I am the LORD; and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their whole heart."

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