Comments on: Darkness That Can Be Felt

By: Stretch Mark Mama

Stretch Mark Mama — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 07:54:39 +0000

I’ve spent a lot of time teaching adults (which I love) but this past year we’ve been part of a church plant and I was asked to teach (all) the kids (ages 3-10). I’m always amazed what I learn when taking a concept and putting it in Little Person terms. All the cliches and trite phrases in the world sure don’t work with kids, I’ll tell ya that! But it’s been fun and a real stretch for me.

By: Princess Leia

Princess Leia — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:35:59 +0000

Reminds me of the “dark island” in C.S. Lewis’ “Voyage of the Dawn Treader.”

By: Lisa Cronk

Lisa Cronk — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:11:27 +0000

Shaun, as I read this post, it brought to mind a debilitating time in my life when I encountered this very thing. At 32 yrs of age, I began to have what many doctors referred to as “cosmetic death” in women. It’s called alopecia ~ male pattern balding in women. With every strand of hair that I gathered out of my bathroom sink, only to fill a snack-sized ziploc bag (to take to another specialist in AL), it was a “felt” darkness like you wouldn’t believe. Women at 32 aren’t suppose to be bald! But,a baseball cap and wide-framed sunglasses became a part of my daily wardrobe for a few years...and I hated it! And not only that, I hated what I was becoming...a woman imprisoned by vanity ~ the overly pre-occupation with self.

The balding seemed to push me further back into a lonely place - a place that was completely foreign to me and made me feel so disoriented. But as I lived there, I met a woman ... a woman at an old stagnate well, and I also met the Man who found her there one hot blistering day ... ... and liberated her!

I wrote a book from my experience of learning to meet Jesus at the deep well of my heart; “The Woman at the Well Had a Name”, and in it are these words that I found at the bottom of my well ~

“Although it was a bright and blistering sunny day, everything around me looked and felt completely dark. I couldn’t even find beauty in the flowers around me as I had many time before. The pleasure in hearing the birds sing was gone. The wind-chime my husband gave me that always seemed to stir in me a thankfulness of God’s presence was now just noise. My whole mindset was not like me at all, and I was frightened because it was so real. I could see the darkness. But worse - I could feel it.”

BUT Shaun, the good news is this - in using the words of King David, “The Lord set me free from my prison so I may praise His name, then the righteous will gather around me and I WILL TELL them of His goodness to me” Ps. 142:7. I learned that even in “felt darkness” the penetrating radiance and “felt glory” of God’s presence IS always there - it’s more certain and constant than even the rising and setting of the sun! How increasingly grateful I am for His Providence!!

By: Theresa Seeber

Theresa Seeber — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 04:19:16 +0000

Liza, I have serious experience with depression, and I can tell you that you are not being punished. Depression is serious, and has roots in various places. For many it is simply an imbalance of the body’s chemicals and can be treated (with varying results) with medication. I use Zoloft and it has an excellent, long-standing track record. On the other hand, often depression has its roots in matters of abuse, hurts, childhood trauma, etc. So that is the result of sin, but not your own. Let us not rule out the fact that we do, indeed, have an enemy who seeks to steal, kill and destroy us and who often used depression to suck the joy out of us. He would love for you to blame yourself and keep sinking lower. Don’t believe him.
Lord, I know there are many out there who struggle with this, so I am asking You please to intervene, to make a way, to shine a light on our own personal darknesses in order to reveal things that we can do to get better. Let us ever lean on You. In Jesus’ Name, Amen. God bless you.

By: Liza Peterson

Liza Peterson — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 04:16:03 +0000

My thinking was more along the lines that God’s command of darkness for the Egyptian’s sin could be interprated as depression because sometimes depression is sometimes called darkness (the dark night of the soul). Maybe I’m not communicating it properly but it made sense in my mind, LOL.

By: Shaun Groves

Shaun Groves — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 03:16:32 +0000

Liza, I have no idea what’s in this post that would make you think that. But, I’m sure it’s there somewhere - you don’t make stuff up right?

I’m not PURPOSEFULLY saying that, no. But that’s an interesting thing to think about. On another day.

By: Liza Peterson

Liza Peterson — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 01:50:52 +0000

I’m probably wrong, but are you at some extent saying that due to our sin God could send depression?

By: Texas in Africa

Texas in Africa — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 22:49:52 +0000

I’m not a Matthew Henry fan, but okay. Another thing - living in the middle of nowhere in Africa helped me to understand the OT a lot better. I think in our modern world we tend to read a lot of things in the Bible as metaphor (eg, David’s fear that the jackals are coming for him in the Psalms) that maybe weren’t originally metaphors, or that weren’t only metaphors. When you’re out in a dark, dark, DARK, moonless night and you start to see the eyes of animals out there and hear the hyenas circling, the darkness almost becomes something you can feel. There don’t have to be evil angels around to feel this incredible smallness and sense of being completely vulnerable at the depths of your soul.

Anyway, I’m in no way qualified to be a Biblical commentator. The point’s probably the same no matter what the Egyptians were feeling.

By: kathy hickey

kathy hickey — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 22:32:24 +0000

ZOWIE!!