Addendum to Blessings by Laura Story
I have been singing the words to that song a lot lately, but found myself bothered by the line
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You are near.
Outside of the poetic hyperbole, I would say that sleepless nights are due to anxiety, and anxiety is a sin, according to both Jesus and Paul. If not a sin (my own hyperbole), anxiety is not desirable and not a show of faith.
Dark nights of the soul are real and all saints have them (or most, again hyperbole), but three years of tossing and turning is a medical condition and a sign of deep distress. There would be no place for this kind of fear if one is trusting God. Pietistic religion, which I have had more than enough of in my life, is just the flipside of mysticism, where too much emphasis is placed on experience--of feeling God's presence instead of just accepting it, knowing it, believing it regardless of how one feels.
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You are near.
Outside of the poetic hyperbole, I would say that sleepless nights are due to anxiety, and anxiety is a sin, according to both Jesus and Paul. If not a sin (my own hyperbole), anxiety is not desirable and not a show of faith.
Dark nights of the soul are real and all saints have them (or most, again hyperbole), but three years of tossing and turning is a medical condition and a sign of deep distress. There would be no place for this kind of fear if one is trusting God. Pietistic religion, which I have had more than enough of in my life, is just the flipside of mysticism, where too much emphasis is placed on experience--of feeling God's presence instead of just accepting it, knowing it, believing it regardless of how one feels.
Comments