As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” . . . Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me. (Psalm 42:1-3, 7)

Francis Schaeffer once commented that “the death of joy in nature is leading to the death of nature itself.” He concluded that this was the result of the Darwinian view of nature. I believe Schaeffer was right in his evaluation. However, I believe there are additional reasons for loss of joy in nature—more personal and spiritual reasons. I’m in a Psalm 42-43 period, and I don’t feel much joy right now—and nature isn’t helping. The wonders of creation still abound, but my heart does not abound with them. I’ve been here before, and I know that the joy will return, but I also know that one must never look to the creation alone for lasting joy. That comes from the Creator himself. [Deer photo source]

I’m trying to figure out the reasons for this current loss of joy. Unrelenting heat and the lack of rain is slowly sucking the life out of West Michigan’s potential harvest, which brings up thoughts about the global climate change debate that’s dividing the world, our nation, and even the church. Trees all around us are in great distress and dying by the thousands, and attuned to the natural world as I am, I see this and am saddened by it. Last night I read some new reports that are providing facts that give evidence of the worst summer coral kill in decades. And deep below the waves of the Gulf of Mexico, millions of gallons of dispersed oil are settling down to the bottom threatening to greatly enlarge the Gulf’s “dead zone.”

I’m personally conservative in faith, economics, and politics, but am horribly disappointed by the mean-spirited and polarizing language of conservative pundits. And in spite of my efforts and the efforts of many friends to help motivate evangelicals to care more about and for the creation, it seems that conservative Christians would rather trust the word of talkshow personalities than either God’s Word or the words of fellow believers in the sciences who are confirming the existence of multiple environmental crises created in part by our materialism. We don’t want to hear that; so we sort of collectively put our fingers in our ears and mutter, “Na, na, na. . . .” [Dead coral photo source]

Add that to the fact that so many of the local churches we’ve been looking at to commit to seem to have become venues for Sunday rock concerts and/or social clubs for young families that appear to care little for whatever experience and wisdom those of us over 60 might have to share with them. Further, many fellow “seniors” simply seem to have melted into complacency and into their easy chairs in front of TV screens watching depressing news from every corner of the globe—and watching it for hours because most of the rest of what you get on TV is either inane or profane. They don’t particularly make good conversation partners.

Then I add all this to the fact that some people I love are experiencing health problems and relationship struggles. That’s probably one reason my soul resonates with the deer who “pants for streams of water.” So today I especially need to do what the psalmist recommends: “Put your hope in God—for I will praise him, my Savior and my God” (Psalm 42:11).

And I might also again read chapter eight in C. S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters.  If your soul is in the dumps today, you might want to do that too. You can read it here.

Another classic on this issue, and extremely thorough, is Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Its Cure, by Martyn Lloyd-Jones.