God in the depths

Read Psalm 130:1-2

1 Out of the depths I cry to you,LORD;
2     Lord,hear my voice.
    Let your ears be attentive
        to my cry for mercy. (NIV)

One of the more dangerous and common illusions in the Christian faith is to believe that God is to be found most significantly when we are on top of things. When we achieve success and ascend the mountain top. Conversely,when we hit rock bottom and our worlds fall apart we believe that God is somehow left behind in those sunlit former days.

This ignores much biblical teaching and is certainly not the experience of the Psalmist. He is often in the depths and he expects to meet God in the depths. Our God doesn’t abandon us in hard times. No darkness is too dark for him and no depth is too deep for him. When all other earthly consolations are removed he sticks with us. When those things and people we depended upon are now unreliable or gone,he stays firm.

As the writer Richard Rohr says,”We must not be afraid of falling,failing,going ‘down.’ It is at the bottom where we find grace; for like water,grace seeks the lowest place and there it pools up”. We would much prefer to always and only experience the good things and find the grace revealed at such times to be sufficient. But life is not like that.

Our desire to find God and come to trust and love him more will mean some time in the depths. It is in the darkness that we best learn to appreciate and embrace the light.

Blessings
David Reay