The Pits: A Time of Spiritual Defrag and Reboot

I was supposed to have turned in a blog entry to The Mission Society some weeks ago. But, to be perfectly honest, I just didn't have anything good to say! To be honest, I was...in the "pit."

Psalm 40 begins, "I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure" (NRSV). David wrote these words, that same David who was "a man after God's own heart," yet here he is, in a pit! This is not some "lost" person awaiting salvation...this is a man who has walked with God, who has faced giants, who has risen to the throne. Yet, he finds himself in a pit.

For the last week and a half, I've been in that pit as well. I had lost sight of my calling, of my faith, of my purpose in this world. Perhaps in our high-speed, high-tech, high-pressure world, this becomes easier and easier. Perhaps in our multi-cultural, multi-religious, multi-tasking world, it's hard to stay on the path that leads to life. I've tried to examine what let to my ending-up in the pit, but I can't put my finger on it. All I know is that, like David, I was in a pit...and I wasn't getting out fast.

As I look back on my life, at those dark times (John of the Cross called such times a "dark night of the soul"), at those times I've been in the pit, I realize that it is not a wholly uncommon thing--at least not in my life. Oh, I know...as a minister and a missionary I'm supposed to always 'have it together,' always walk in the light. But, Scripture seems to indicate something different--God's people, faithful as they are, sometimes end up in the pit, in the valley of the shadow of death, in a cave hiding from the world.

The good news is that God does not abandon us. However, He does sometimes allow us to be in that pit--in that darkness--for a spell. So, it is really important that David "waited patiently." And, after that time of waiting? God is faithful and lifts us from the pit and sets our "feet upon a rock"...but He doesn't stop there..He puts "a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God."

While I'm a bit reluctant to draw too many parallels between people and computers, I must say that these pits, valleys, dark-soul times seem to be like a spiritual defrag and re-boot: a time to re-sort everything, to return things to their proper places...of importance, to find new connections in life--even a renewed experience of faith. While I don't long for the pit (no!), I'm learning not to freak-out when I occasionally find myself there...and I'm learning to wait patiently each time for our God to rescue me and give me a new song. Today, I'm on a rock...and I've got a new tune floating through my life...and I think it's kind of catchy!