Surviving the Dark Night of the Soul
A mystic named John of the cross coined the phrase- "the dark night of the soul" a long time ago. He said it was the moments before the light- when the dark seems darkest as we fight through painful suffering to grow & mature in our faith. If you've been alive longer than a few years, you've probably encountered one of these seasons- when things aren't working, nothing is going right, and everything seems stacked against you. It's painful- and for those of us in ministry, it's all too often inflicted by the very church we serve. I vividly remember a conversation with a personnel committee in my early days of ministry, I'd been given a "growth plan" to work through and thought I was doing well. But, in that meeting, I was told I wasn't growing fast enough- that led to a discussion about options and led to me being asked to tender my resignation. It hurt- and I'll be honest- it led me to a dark place: questioning my faith, ques...