Written by Kyle Strobel, director of the Institute for Spiritual Formation at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University
In the history of Reformed pastoral theology, there’s an experience that shows up constantly: A believer feels completely abandoned by God, as if God is nowhere to be found.
Throughout history, folks have struggled to find the right name for this experience. Some have described it as “the dark night of the soul,” “spiritual deadness,” or, most often, “spiritual desertion” or “desolation.” But the experience is consistently named as a central feature of pastoral theology. Spiritual desertion is God’s act to lead his people into experiencing his absence in order to awaken them to the truth of how sinful and broken they truly are.
The obvious question: Why would God do this? God leads you into your weakness to show you his power. He guides you into your desperation to unveil ever more deeply his grace. He unveils how deep sin goes in your soul so you can know how much you’ve been forgiven. Like suffering, spiritual desertion is meant to guide you back to the truth of the gospel amid your struggle. In this way, it’s a training in faith and hope.
For pastors, it’s an opportunity to help the person experiencing it name their idolatries, false beliefs, and the sinfulness that rises to the surface of their lives, reminding them that Christ died for them while they were still in their sin, not in their goodness.
We know from Scripture that Christian growth is developmental. God relates to his people in their spiritual infancy, adolescence, and adulthood differently (1 Cor. 3:1–2; 1 John 2:13–14). In the Reformed tradition, this maturation process was understood as God leading us through the desert to know his forgiveness, grace, and mercy more deeply. As I wrote recently for TGC, spiritual desertion is an invitation to a deeper walk with God by seeing more deeply your rebellion and more profoundly God’s grace.
—Kyle
