I have heard people who go through cyclical or unexpected periods of dryness simply wanting to give up! Trust me, I have been there and done that — many times. The temptations and despair were real because they seemed natural or very human at those times, too! Nevertheless, God is still there, even in the valleys of dry bones, the deserts of nothingness, or the dark storms that shake things up around us. While it is easy to give into doubt and despair when life gets hard and challenging, it is one of life’s greatest gifts and lessons to learn to stay and abide with Him through the dry valleys and dark storms of life. At times when it seems so natural to give up and give in, we need to seek and depend on the supernatural grace by turning to Him, to the relationships that nourish us, remain faithful, keep walking, and seek help as needed.
The early Christians experienced many of those things in their own times. They thought it was the end, and many believers, too, experienced trials, tribulations, and persecutions throughout the world’s history and thought it was the end time, but we are still here. No matter what trials, hardships, temptations, or manipulative measures this world may throw at us, we must not give up just yet! The Lord reminded us that we will suffer much. We may sometimes be betrayed and handed over by the ones who are dear to us, hated by all because of the truth and who we are as His disciples, but not a hair on our head will be destroyed. He did say in Luke 21:19 to us, who are His disciples, “By your perseverance, you will secure your lives.”
Choose Christ! Choose to love and remain in love in good times and in bad. Choose to give ourselves in sickness and in health. Choose to care and to be faithful through our perseverance now and for the rest of our lives. Please remember that when we speak of God‘s love for us, we are also reminded and called to understand and commit our love to Him! Therefore, when eros runs dry, especially in times of trials, nothingness, passionlessness, shattered dreams, the valley of dry bones, or endless desert, be focused, stay strong, be grounded, and choose to give life through the real, personal, and intimate agape.
When the temptation to fall out of love is strong, personally choose to give and stay in love with God! He is love! When the Lord Jesus Christ spoke about love, especially in the hard times, He spoke about this agape and caritas — self-donating, giving, willing the good of the other, persevering, faithful, personal, intimate, and everlasting — love. As a matter of fact, He did not just speak about love with empty words or short-lived passion. He chose to love even when He was betrayed, forgotten, abandoned, ignored, handed over to die, suffered tremendously, and ultimately rejected by His own people!
If we are not prepared for eternity now, imagine how lost we will be! If we do not love Him now and are not willing to live according to His will, eternity will be hellish, for sure. Our eternity with God begins now with how we prepare ourselves to receive Him in the present moment. If we do not have enough time and the interior room to welcome and have Him dwell within us, we will never have enough room and priority, even in the afterlife, to be with Him. We build our eternal home and fix its size now by how much we empty ourselves for the Almighty!
The irony is that we, ourselves, have become our own products as we objectify God and one another. We have become products to be used and consumed, driven by our consumer needs and desires. We have become people so preoccupied with the things of this world that we can no longer feel the joy of the Gospel, lift up our hearts, and fix our lives on things that matter and are eternal. We get easily agitated and worried when things do not go our way, when God does not seem to provide for us as we like things to be, or when everyone cannot live up to our expectations! In other words, we have created our own hell and unhappiness by and for our very own selves.
Nonetheless, disciples move on with their daily struggles and hardships because they are deeply content in having the Almighty in their lives, not simply because of what He can provide or give them as they see fit. We are content because we have the Lord, not because of what He can do! True faith helps us be focused on the person, reality, and existence of God, loving Him as He is, imitating Him, and serving Him in one another instead of only focusing on what He can do to fit our finite, humanistic, or limited molds and expectations. Discipleship needs time to grow and oftentimes happens whenever trials and hardships arise, so our roots get more grounded and deepened in His faithfulness and everlasting love. Similarly, when we see a plant, a vine, or a tree grow, we just think it is something normal and easy, but it takes a lot of energy and effort for it to push through the physical barriers each day — and so does our life of faith and discipleship.
Of course, conforming to God‘s will is not easy. At times, it will seem to be hard punishments and disciplinary measures! Yet, the dying of ourselves and embracing oppositions, hardships, trials, and sufferings are opportunities for us to unite ourselves to Christ‘s redemptive suffering. Our human mishaps and sufferings are not always divine punishment or abandonment in the impoverished understanding of transactional and favor-based understanding of grace. If that is the case, Jesus Christ would be the most despicable and failed case in human history, and all the saints would be ignorant fools!
The Church teaches us that by enduring Christ’s sufferings in every age, especially in her members, she bears faithful witness to His redemptive love to all. In a self-centered and materialistic world, the generosity of genuine self-donating love, even if it means suffering, testifies to Christ‘s own redemptive love for humanity. At times in our spiritual journey, we will feel like we have lost everything, hated by many, abandoned by God, and left for dead! We might feel like we are in the darkness by ourselves — cannot feel His presence in our psyche or natural senses — just like St. Mother Teresa in her own dark nights of the soul for forty years; however, we continued to choose to love and serve so that His light shined in and through her darkness.
The Lord is always with us, even when we cannot sense Him. He has always been faithful to us, giving us sufficient grace to embrace all trials and hardships that have arisen and given to us by others and because of life itself. No matter what, do not give up but allow our lives to be light for those around us so we can testify to His love in all circumstances — in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, now and for the rest of our lives. How pitiful it would be if we trade eternal joy for a short life here in this world! Take a moment to reflect on eternity — its everlasting, beatific vision and happiness — compared to our finite and limited time here on this earth. Therefore, let us persevere, endure, and stay faithful to Him until the end. Let us not forget but remember the words of St. Paul, “May our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting encouragement and good hope through His grace, encourage your hearts and strengthen them in every good deed and word.” (2 Thessalonians 2:16-17) Let us encourage and pray for one another just as St. Paul reminded his own people, “May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and endurance of Christ.” (3:5)
I Thirst (John 19:28) with Father Khoi 