June 17

Genesis 21:19 — And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink.

 Do you get them? Spiritual dry spells I mean? Times when prayer seems to hit a glass ceiling, preaching seems dull and teaching seems dusty (with apologies to those charged with teaching me, the fault is entirely with me, I know). I do. And I know I’m not alone. I’m not there just now — this is one of those blessed times in the uplands. But where do you go when you run into one of those times? (Can I be honest, I think I might be writing this to have a reminder the next time the lights go out …)

I have noticed something about my dry times. They usually come when I’ve been feeling comfortable, maybe even smug. When things are running well … When I’m thinking maybe I know what’s going on. And the story of Hagar has in it what seems to me to be a key. You remember Hagar, of course. The servant whom Sarah encouraged Abraham to father a son on, as it seemed Sarah was never going to be a mother. Poor Hagar, she did her bit, and then along came Isaac, and her mistresses favor irretrievably dried up. What was Hagar to do? She went to the desert. What did she find there? Water, from God. And it wasn’t the first time. The first time was after she became pregnant and Sarah, jealous perhaps, “used her hardly”. Hagar went to the well in the desert, and met the angel who gave her good advice. She went to “the well of Him that seeth and heareth me”. There’s the clue, for me at least. When the water runs dry, run away from the comfort and seek living water in the desert.

There was a Spanish mystic, John of The Cross, who understood this. He called the dry spells “The dark night of the soul”. Here’s how he described the remedy: “Turn not to the easiest, but to the most difficult … not to the more, but to the less; not towards what is high and precious, but to what is low and despised; not towards desiring anything, but to desiring nothing.”

If like me, you are bathing in living water just now, rejoice, sing and be happy. But when things get dry — and they will — head for the desert!