It is to set us free...

I am still reading Counseling and Psychotherapy, A Christian Perspective. It is taking me longer than I would have liked -- 16 days and still counting.

Though it is not an easy read, because of its length, it is still a good read. I am at the portion where he goes on a bit more indepth into Christian Counseling and I'd like to highlight this part where he quoted Richard Foster:

"the 'dark night'...is not something bad or destructive...The purpose of the darkness is not to punish or afflict us. It is to set us free...

What is involved in entering the dark night of the soul? It may be a sense of dryness, depression, even lostness. It strips us of overdependence on the emotional life. The notion, often heard today, that such experiences can be avoided and that we should live in peace and comfort, joy and celebration, only betrays the fact that much contemporary experience is surface slush. The dark night is one of the ways God brings us to a hush, a stillness, so that He can work on inner transformation of the soul. . . . Recognize the dark night for what it is. Be grateful that God is lovingly drawing you away from every distraction so that you can see Him." (p.330)

I have always hated it when I am experiencing this kind of darkness where life seems so vain, hopeless and meaningless. However, it is necessary, and as Foster has put it, it does set me free.

pearlie