A Message from the Sahara

I have come to the conclusion that a Dark Night of the Soul is different from being in a Spiritual Desert.

I have also come to see that a Spiritual Desert is the place that Jesus puts a person in order to rescue, or protect them, or take them out of, the Dark Night of the Soul. It is a step up, so to speak. One step closer to freedom, although it may not really feel like it.

The Dark Night of the Soul is depression, sadness, being on the edge of despair, and it is a place where the devil attacks a person. It is a tormented place, full of fear, full of begging for help and not getting any relief. It is sort of a little hell on earth. A warning perhaps of what could really be for a person for all eternity? A test....maybe? A field day for the devil....most definitely.

A person can be plucked out of the Dark Night and plunked down in the middle of the desert, far away from the devil...and everything else too. (So we are plucked and then plunked.) The Dark Night of the Soul and a Spiritual Desert may seem to be the same from the outside, but from the inside they are two very distinct places w/ distinct purposes. This has been my experience, and is currently my experience, if you ask me. (I know, no one is asking, but I'm saying it anyway.)

A Dark Night of the Soul can destroy you, while a Spiritual Desert, which is also a difficult place to be, has the capacity to give rest and respite. It is a place of waiting....sort of a Purgatory on earth, if you will.

In the Dark Night of the Soul one can feel like there is no hope at all. In the Spiritual Desert, it is more of a place of waiting for hope to be restored. In the desert, Jesus has taken all the turmoil that was present in the Dark Night and removed it.

In the desert, a person is alone with their thoughts and it is so quiet and still that you can hear your thoughts clearly, no matter how uncomfortable they are. In the Dark Night, one can't hear their own thoughts due to the din that the devil is creating.

The desert can be hot in the daytime, and cold in the night time. The desert is a very lonely place. But I am finding out that the desert is more than just sand and wild temperature changes. The desert is quiet, sometimes too quiet, but since God speaks in a still small voice, then I guess that is okay because if one listens close enough, God might just say something.

Days and nights in the desert each bring about their own challenges. The day time heat brings about wrestling, anger, begging for relief, starvation and thirst. The desert sun is blinding. But the nights are just as challenging. The desert nights are cold and very lonely. The wind whistles in an eerie way and the sand gets in one's eyes. There are no blankets and it is scary.

In the desert, the best times are dawn and sunset, because both bring some relief from the preceeding night or day's ordeals. But still, the desert is a step up from the Dark Night of the Soul because, occasionally in the desert, an oasis appears. It seems that the Holy Spirit knows just how far one can be pushed and just when you think you are at your wit's end and will expire, an oasis appears.

Sometimes the oasis can include a Eucharistic moment, or an angel, or a special word of encouragement. These are things that help one see that the desert will not last forever, and as soon as the lessons that need to be learned are actually learned, then the person is released from the desert. This is my hope anyway.

I am praying and sacrificing and trying to tolerate and learn, and I am praying for another oasis and for freedom. I long to return to the garden where refreshment abounds and where hope and optimism and faith are abundant once again.

Signing off from somewhere deep in the Sahara......