Day 29 – April 7, 2025

“The Dark Night of the Soul” is something we all are likely to experience at some point in life, as did a sixteenth-century poet named Saint John of the Cross, who created the term while referring to what he felt was an “absence of God’s presence.”  He was a “Converso”, a descendant of “New Christians” who were Iberian Jewish converts to Roman Catholicism. Our Lord understands the Dark Night, for He experienced it during his forty days in the wilderness after his baptism. Even though God was seemingly absent, Jesus never lost faith.

Our longtime minister at Huntsville First United Methodist Church during the 1970s, the Reverend Doctor Bill Curl, often referred to books by the Scottish Presbyterian theologian, William Barclay, one of the most noted theologians of the twentieth century. Barclay was on his deathbed when he was asked by his minister friend, “Billy, what is the most notable thing you have learned in your lifelong study of the Bible?” Barclay answered, “Jesus loves me, this I know. For the Bible tells me so.”

 Barclay, the distinguished scholar who had retranslated the Bible from the originals during his long life, explained that God would not send Jesus into temptation. Temptation, Barclay explained, was translated as “Testing.” We in Huntsville understand the concept of “testing”. Is this metal strong enough to hold together the rocket taking the spacecraft into orbit – and to bring it back again? We wouldn’t put the spaceship together with materials that haven’t been tested. And God doesn’t send us out to carry His message to the World without testing us. 

So Jesus underwent the most stringent testing. He had to before He began his ministry – and so He could understand the testing we go through.

 In my family’s case, the total redirection of what we thought we would do for lifetime work was our testing and our time in the wilderness. Our testing time was a redirection caused, not by our choice, but by a local and nationwide recession that took away the job that provided for our young family’s future. What God later made possible for us was so much better than our plan, though we didn’t know it for a long time. 

There was pain and a promise. The pain was a time of scarcity as we started new careers, a new business, and a new future.  The promise came in the faith it took Richard and me to put one foot in front of the other from day to day.  Lord, we said, as we move forward in this new life, we will use it to praise You.

 During this time, one of the ways we made ends meet was by entering music contests like the annual Old Time Fiddlers’ contest in Athens, Alabama, where Richard earned his way to the finals through God’s gift of music. Richard’s clear tenor voice rang out, not a traditional mountain-style folk song as was popular in the secular setting, but a song of praise and faith: “Joshua fit the battle of Jericho and the battle is in His hands”. It was as much a prayer as it was a rejoicing. Not only was Richard chosen folk song award winner but, more than that, he served as a witness to hundreds of people. We believe that God was not absent from us and our “Dark Night of the Soul” was just a holy testing. Our lives took on a new direction during that time and reminded us to this day every battle is in God’s hands. And we know God is with us whatever befalls.

Nancy Wilkinson Van Valkenburgh

Prayer:  Loving God, we praise your holy name! Even when we feel distant from you, or wonder what you have planned for our lives, we trust that you love us and want what is best for us. Help us to let go of “us” and cling to “you”. Make our paths clear to focus on your will for us each and every day. Amen.