One of my favorite pieces of children's literature is the classic book, "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day." 

It chronicles a day in the life of young Alexander who went to bed with gum in his mouth and now there's gum in his hair. As his day continues to get worse, he entertains the thought of moving to Australia where he envisions having no more bad days. 

It's a fun kids' book, but it highlights the human experience of having bad days and just wishing for an escape.

But what happens when those days turn into horrible, terrible, no good very bad months and seasons and years? 

Christians in the past used to speak about the dark night of the soul, "a malady that the greatest of Christians have suffered from time to time." As the late RC Sproul described it, "This is no ordinary fit of depression, but it is a depression that is linked to a crisis of faith, a crisis that comes when one senses the absence of God or gives rise to a sense of abandonment by God." 

So what do you do when you go through this dark night of the soul? When you feel abandoned by God? When the only friend you have left is darkness? 

Join us this Sunday as we look into Psalm 88. This is a transitional study as we move from the book of Philippians to the Book of Ruth, and the introduction to a woman who experienced a dark night of the soul that was so severe that she changed her name to "Bitter."

And we'll learn a thing or two about being brutally honest with God, the doggedness of faith, and the One who came to earth to taste our sadness, He who sorrows knew no end, and that beautiful day when He will wipe away all our tears. 

We hope you can join us for worship this Sunday at 10am at the Hilton Garden Inn.

Here’s a copy of the worship folder.

See you then,

Pastor John