The Dark Night Of The Soul

Enjoy this message from Pastor Tyler Schoenberger called "The Dark Night Of The Soul " on Sunday, March 1, 2026 at Reach Church in Bear, Delaware!

The concept of the dark night of the soul, first articulated by St. John of the Cross during his brutal imprisonment in 1577, reveals a profound spiritual truth: our darkest moments often become the pathway to deepest intimacy with God. While we naturally chase peak religious experiences and spiritual highs, these can create a dangerous dependency on feelings to measure God's presence. When prayers feel dry and God seems distant, we typically assume something is wrong with our faith.

However, St. John of the Cross taught the opposite. Spiritual dryness and the absence of religious feelings can actually signal the beginning of true intimacy with God. Only when we're stripped of spiritual performance and emotional props do we encounter God as He truly is, not just the blessings that come from Him. Joseph's story perfectly illustrates this principle - sold into slavery by his own brothers, he experienced the ultimate dark night, yet God was weaving redemption through the very dysfunction that seemed to destroy him.

The apostle Paul understood this truth when he wrote about wanting to know Christ through both His resurrection power and His sufferings. True knowledge of God requires experiencing our own dark nights, where we learn that God's presence isn't dependent on our feelings about Him. In the darkness, stripped of pretense and performance, we discover that our longing for God becomes our light, leading us to authentic relationship with the One who meets us in every valley and never leaves our side.