“Finding God is the treasure of disillusionment. There, buried in the night, is a purified relationship with Him that can offer satisfaction to the cynic, solid ground to the skeptic, and life-giving hope to hose drowning in despair.”- Alicia Britt Chole
“One might think that God’s immanent presence would be in brightness, but Moses knew better. It is in the darkness of life that we may find God.”- Abraham J. Twerski
Alicia Britt Chole concludes Chapter 5 of The Night is Normal as she looks closely at skepticism and despair. In the second and third century, the movement of skepticism elevated inquiry, suspended certainty, and at times expressed a professional belief in disbelief. Today a skeptic holds that no adequate grounds exist for certainty regarding the truth of any proposal.
Therefore, Dr. Chole asserts the glaring unsustainability of skepticism as a philosophy. Because skeptics place reality further and further out of reach. In addition, a confirmed skeptic moves beyond the role of philosophical agnostic. As a result, Dr. Chole notes, our current culture no longer spells the word truth with a capital T. Instead, we keep it small lest we cause offense.
Hence, Dr. Chole stresses:
“The professional skeptic has no hope. Uncertainty only begets more uncertainty, and loss only leads to more loss. However, for the disillusioned, uncertainty leads to discovery, and loss leads to gain.”
In conclusion, Dr. Chole states, the word despair describes a state of hopelessness. Thus, it’s not a school of thought. So, while disillusionment is a loss of illusions, despair represents a loss of hope. Despair sees things as profoundly wrong – with no hope they’ll change for the better. So, despair functions as one of the most negative and destructive of human affects.
Above all, the author notes, distraction serves as one of the main reasons we need a viable framework to process spiritual pain. We need to view the night as normal in the life of faith. Or we find it easy to mistake spiritual darkness for spiritual death.
Today’s question: What Bible verses help you find the treasure of disillusionment? Please share.
Coming Monday: the October Short Meditation, “Only ten seconds away”
Tomorrow’s blog: “Infuse faith with depth”
