Spiritual “doldrums” can be a place in time or a mental state.  If it’s where we are, an important attitude and action is required to survive and see it through. That attitude and action is summed up in perseverance. Perseverance enables us to focus on our destination.  Perseverance plays a vital role in discipline that urges us on in Bible reading and prayerfulness.  Perseverance promotes fellowship and communion with other believers, elevates public worship, gives direction, and bolsters hope and joy; it undergirds works of charity and compassion.

I’ve never sailed on a sailboat, but I have sailed across the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea on ocean liners.  The eight-day voyage across the Atlantic on the Michaelangelo was peaceful; the two-day and one-night voyage across the Mediterranean from France to Tunisia on the L’Avenir was something else.  Le Mistral, a strong northern wind, spills over the Alps rushing across France to the Riviera and Marseille, blowing across the Mediterranean, and affecting weather in North Africa.

Working in Marseille, I learned the French call it “le balai” (the broom).  It sweeps grime and dirt away.  It chose that day to exercise its right.  I and many others experienced an indefensible seasickness.  It so roiled the waters I can’t imagine what it would have been like to be on a sailboat.  Could anything be more dangerous than this?

Attending a memorial service for a friend’s husband, the pastor mentioned that, in conversations with him days before he died, he shared his sailboat experiences.  He spoke of the doldrums.  He said the “doldrums” could be more dangerous than a storm.  That thought piqued my curiosity.  I researched this phenomenon and learned: “The ‘doldrums,’ a nautical term, refers to the belt around the Earth near the equator where sailing ships get stuck on windless waters.”  Sailboats could get stuck for days or weeks—unable to move.  According to how well equipped they are, windless days could outlast supplies and the crew could all die.

I couldn’t resist thinking what a metaphor for spiritual life!  Isn’t it true that when buffeted by life’s storms, we tend to pray more fervently, seek God’s face and deliverance more urgently, and rely more faithfully on the Lord?  We may intently seek fellowship or communion with other believers. Searching the Scriptures becomes needful for understanding in such times.  Isn’t it also true that it’s in the storms of life we grow, become stronger and are stretched in our trust?  It’s when our faith is most deepened?  Church life becomes a haven—a refuge; we’re not alone or isolated.  Storms encourage us to focus on destination—where we’re headed and to keep afloat.

What do “doldrums” reflect in one’s spiritual life?  We become stuck in a motionless rut, stagnant, failing to progress or advance, suffering ennui, languishing, becoming spiritually listless, and undisciplined. Perhaps saddest of all, we may allow ourselves to become isolated from other believers.  Spiritual inertia, indolence, apathy, disinterest, or lethargy not only set in, they dominate.  There is evidence of a Bible never opened, prayers never uttered, corporate worship absented, life directionless, hopeless, joyless, a loss of love for God, and charity toward others.  Spiritual engagement decreases, if not disappears.

The “doldrums” appear at different times in one’s life.  They may appear when we’re our busiest in careers or focused on family responsibilities.  The expression, “The barrenness of busyness” is paradoxically closely akin to the “doldrums.”  “Doldrums” can appear in the midst of ministry or following a grand spiritual achievement.  Vulnerability to the “doldrums” can occur in the aging process when one begins to slow down, stamina decreases, mobility becomes more limited, and when many loved ones are no longer present to challenge, cheer or encourage us on in spiritual pursuit.

Spiritual “doldrums” can be a place in time or a mental state.  If it’s where we are, an important attitude and action is required to survive and see it through. That attitude and action is summed up in perseverance. Perseverance enables us to focus on our destination.  Perseverance plays a vital role in discipline that urges us on in Bible reading and prayerfulness.  Perseverance promotes fellowship and communion with other believers, elevates public worship, gives direction, and bolsters hope and joy; it undergirds works of charity and compassion.

Perseverance is the Holy Spirit’s enablement to face a Mistral or the “doldrums.”  I’ve experienced both, and perhaps you have, too.  The Apostle James tells us what we need to know in any situation: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.  Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything”  (James 1: 2-4).

In Hebrews 11: 4, God testifies of Abel, “. . . though he is dead, he still speaks.”  Likewise, though my friend’s husband is dead, “He still speaks.”  He did to me.  Storms can be dangerous, but the doldrums can be just as dangerous.  To be forewarned is to be forearmed. Beware of the “doldrums.”

Helen Louise Herndon is a member of Central Presbyterian Church (EPC) in St. Louis, Missouri. She is freelance writer and served as a missionary to the Arab/Muslim world in France and North Africa.