For some there comes a time that you feel no more emotions towards God. And your will power has failed you.
And all that remains is emptiness.
…dryness.
There comes a time in our life that our relationship with God is less like taking a ride with Him, but pushing a car that ran out of gas. You stop feeling the exhilaration of the ride and just feel the weight of the car as you push it… up hill.
And yet we know that we have to move forward. Towards Christ.
To stop is to quit on God. To leave Him hanging.
We can’t get out of the car and leave Jesus there because it does not feel good anymore.
When our well runs dry, God asks us to go beyond ourselves. He asks us to go beyond our current faith, current hope and current love.
How do you know you really have faith in God?
When you have no more reason or evidence to trust Him but still chose to do so.
How do you know you really have hope in God?
When you have lived in the darkness for so long yet you choose to believe that dawn will come.
How do you know you really love God?
When everything falls apart and you still choose to worship Him.
Most of our faith, hope and love for God is mixed with selfishness to different degrees. If we are truly honest with ourselves, we shall realize that the quality of our relationship with God is somehow dependent on how much we get out Him.
Some decide to a “person of faith” because they think that faith will help them get what they want. Their faith is not really much having a relationship with God, rather it is a way of using faith to get to God to benefit themselves.
Others love God because they expect God to love them back by giving them what they want. As long as God give them what they want, they shall continue to profess their love for God, to Him and to others.
Some people do the “Works of the Lord” because they are searching for meaning in life. That is not bad, but it could be better. You do the “work” out of love.
Emotional dryness can help us purify our faith, hope and love. Not only to God but to others as well. Dryness can help strengthen our wills. It is in our will that choices are made. We might always be in control of our emotions, but we are always in control of our decisions. And we always have to choose God even if our emotions say otherwise.
Even thought faith, hope and love is supernatural gift from God, it is also a choice on our part. The gift can be accepted and cultivated, or rejected and thrown away.
So what do we do when dryness comes?
We “choose” do what we “know” we should do.
If we don’t feel like pray, pray. If we don’t feel like serving others, serve. If we don’t feel like going to Mass, go.
Once we have overcome our own sluggish emotions and selfishness, we shall be free to love.
Even in the desert, life can be found.
"We should be grateful to the Lord our God, for putting us to the test, as he did our forefathers. Recall how he dealt with Abraham, and how he tried Isaac, and all that happened to Jacob in Syrian Mesopotamia while he was tending the flocks of Laban, his mother’s brother. Not for vengeance did the Lord put them in the crucible to try their hearts, nor has he done so with us. It is by way of admonition that he chastises those who are close to him".
Judith 8:25-27
