Slough of Despond, deep bog into which Christian falls on the way from the City of Destruction and from which Help saves him in the allegory Pilgrim's Progress (1678) by John Bunyan
I had a dream two days ago,in which these words came to me Slough of despond or sloth of despond. I thought of the story of Pilgrims Progress.
In the dream I was on a journey,at one point I was doing fine even running ahead then darkness began to fall,and as it grew darker I began to have difficulties identifying the right way to take,things became indistinct,and I ended up on a path that was a dead end. I had to turn around,the path was very narrow and very high up.sheer drops on either side,it was terrifyingly high
strangely there was a house on the side and I could see through the windows a lady,I knocked on the door and she called out that her husband would come and help me.I had the feeling this happened often.
The man came to the door to help me,he recognised me and asked why have you come this way again?
I told him because of my fear and terror I had to sit down and close my eyes,he understood.
I had the sense, despite my terror that he would help me and that I would be able to continue my journey. I still had a long way to go.
my interpretation was that this could apply on many levels, as we pray for Nations,The Church,Individuals and in my own life.
have we let fear cause us to go into a sloth of despond and so stop us from continuing on our journey ,our calling ?,
as a nation are we looking at fear and terror and closing our eyes ,as I did in the dream,lets sit and grow still when terror strikes other nations.
The Church ,are we not raising our voices, closing our eyes because we are afraid? hope the rapture comes,it is dark and we are finding it hard to distinguish the path,our journey is long,it is growing harder to distinguish The Way.
in the dream I knew help was at hand ,even in a very tight spot.
so should we be praying for help for those who are lost, or having a hard time taking the right path?
those who are fearful and bogged down in the slough of despond? or the sloth of despond because we do nothing when afraid,
we have been that way before,why do we need to go back there?
blessings
Gerrie
