“The yearning to know what cannot be known, to comprehend the incomprehensible, to touch and taste the unapproachable, arises from the image of God in the nature of man. Deep calleth unto deep, and though polluted and landlocked by the mighty disaster theologians call the Fall, the soul senses its origin and longs to return to its source.”

― A.W. Tozer

Although I was not physically in a pasture filled with mud and cow piles mixed together. It felt this way to me. Life was hard. Not just a little challenging, but the kind of hard where you feel like you are up to your knees, waist, or chest in mud, and you can’t move forward. The type of hard that takes your breath away, and you wonder if you will ever catch a break, will things ever change, is the breakthrough you have been patiently praying for, will it ever come.

Yeah, this kind of hard.

I stop and slowly taking a deep breath of air and slowly release it out.

Deep pain is hard for us all. Often we feel alone, stuck, overwhelmed, and uncertain of our life and future. All of our storms look different. For some, it’s being stuck waist-high in a combination of mud and cow piles pasture. For others, maybe you feel you are holding on to a life preserver out in the middle of the ocean. Life is hard. You think you are slipping and wonder if you will survive this season, this storm, this battle.

When we are facing difficulties in our lives, who or what do we turn to for direction? Who or what is the strong tower we find our refuge in?

Scriptures tell us,
Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me. Psalm 42:7

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. Isaiah 43:2 ESV

God has a profound experience for each of us as deep calls to deep. God has promised us He is with us through whatever we are facing in life. The truth is, God is doing a deep work within us. We have prayed to know God more, and it is through these difficult seasons where we grow in our relationship with Jesus. Here are some things that come into our life only through profound rough experiences:

Deep heartache brings deep understanding.

Deep experiences bring deep wisdom and knowledge.

Brokenness produces anointing - a sweet aroma to God.

God is calling us out to the deep places, to deeper waters, to a deeper relationship with Him, and revelation of who God is. There is so much to learn about who God is, the mysteries, and God’s hidden things, which only come in one way. God teaches us to wholly lean on Him and in Him through our challenging experiences.

Deep experiences require surrender.

If we are honest, sometimes we don’t pause and talk to Jesus about the hard season we are in. We pray to ask God to rescue us and change our difficult situations but do we ever ask about the details of the hardship. When we are in the middle of our heartache, struggles, and feeling life is overtaking us, we need to pause and ask ourselves these questions:

What am I struggling with? 

What are the things in my life which are bringing heartache, pain, hurt? 

What is God speaking to me in this season of surrender, brokenness, of deep calling to deep?

What are those things I am holding onto?

Next, we need to be honest with ourselves about our view of God in the middle of what we are facing.

Am I quick to ask Jesus to rescue me, instead of asking what He is doing in my life         
through the current situations - in the middle of my mess?

Do I strive for a life of comfort or growth?

Am I willing to be broken for His glory?

Am I willing to walk through the season of brokenness? 

I’m reminded of a camp song I learned as a child. Going on a lion hunt….Gonna catch a big one….I’m not afraid, what’s that up ahead? A bridge – can’t go over it, can’t go under it, can’t go around it, gotta go through it….

We need to be willing to walk through our seasons of brokenness, knowing Jesus has never left us or forsaken us. As we walk through it, not avoiding it, trying to take an easier way, as we surrender to the PROCESS, God does a beautiful and amazing thing within each of us.