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.
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We must recognize that there are many moving parts to being “restored” to our brother or sister. The origin point of the problem is conflating all the parts into one single concept, or boiling it down to a single transaction, such as “I’m sorry.”

We’ve all been there: someone has done something to deeply harm or offend us, and they’re standing in front of us having just spoken the words, “I’m sorry.” But something is off. You can’t quite put your finger on it. It doesn’t seem like there has been an adequate understanding of the damage done, nor does it seem like there is a genuine sorrow over the sin. Instead, they have spoken paltry words like a talisman aimed at making all things better, and there you are, forced to respond, feeling the pressure of Christ’s command to forgive, but not knowing how to formulate your next sentence. Do you say “It’s okay,” even though it’s far from okay? Do you say “I forgive you,” even though the person has not repented nor have they asked for forgiveness? And what does this mean moving forward? Is all just forgotten and now the relationship has to “go back to normal”—whatever that means?
This all-too-common illustration of our lives reveals that Christian circles have a long way to go in reclaiming a biblical understanding of relational restoration. Sadly, in the evangelical and reformed world, there is a troubling oversimplification of the reconciliation process. How do we begin to regain ground in walking through repentance and forgiveness in a Christ-honoring way?
In the first place, we must recognize that there are many moving parts to being “restored” to our brother or sister. The origin point of the problem is conflating all the parts into one single concept, or boiling it down to a single transaction, such as “I’m sorry”. That “sorry” is meant to bear the weight of confession, acknowledgement of wrong done, and asking for forgiveness—all in one fell swoop. Such a short sentence—nay, a single word—cannot possibly bear such a load. But in speaking of these components, we’ve already begun to tease-out some of the elements of what Christ would have us work through in the reconciliation process. The main aspects of biblical restoration are at least as follows:
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 As the culture celebrates that which should be suppressed, and kids are encouraged to explore hints of desires that were once easily corrected through both social stigma and proper understanding of desire as it relates to sexuality, we can expect more people to identify as other than “straight”+ their biological gender. In the end, it’s a disordering of the order of creation, a destruction of society,  and an attempt to dethrone God.  

Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.—Romans 1:32
“George, what are you afraid of if Gay Marriage is legalized? Its not like people will become gay.  People don’t choose to be gay.”  That was an oft-repeated point in the time leading up to the Obergefell decision.  In the years since, we have seen homosexuality go from merely tolerated to Gay Marriage being legalized, corporations tripping over themselves to cash-in, school books celebrating it and kids encouraged to explore it, dragshows for children, and now the Presidential Declaration that June is Pride month.
In the midst of all of this, I have heard repeated concerns from parents with stories of gender and sexual confusion running rampant in their children’s middle schools. One friend in North Carolina told me that in the public school where his daughter goes that 50% of the girls identify as other than straight-female.  A friend in Florida laments how all the middle school girls have girlfriends.   One man in a Christian Facebook group asked for prayer because his daughter who is struggling to make friends came home and told him that she is bisexual because a popular girl in her class came up and spoke to her and she became flush. Naturally, this to her meant she must be gay, because that’s what she’s hearing in school. It can’t be that she was just glad to be noticed.
Are these stories just anecdotal?  Or is something going on? And why is this phenomenon heavily weighted toward adolescent girls?   Abigail Shrier, who is not a Christian, explored an aspect of this in her 2020 book entitled Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze that is Seducing Our Daughters.  Her observations are heartbreaking, the statistics are telling, and what is happening is nothing short of child abuse.
And while 50% may be difficult to believe, the statistics do bear out a huge increase in youth identifying as something other than heterosexual + their biological gender.  In reporting on this phenomenon, US News cited a study showing that 17.8% of girls between ages 15-17 identify as other than heterosexual.  Nearly 18%! This compared to a much lower 6% for boys.  When both genders are taken together, that is an overall 41% increase in just 5 years!  A Christianity Today piece cites a recent Barna Study that shows that “Teenagers in Gen Z are at least TWICE as likely as American adults to identify as LGBT.”  That’s a 100% increase between current teenagers and adults.
It is common for social scientists to explain this phenomenon in this way:
…we cannot be certain if this represents a true increase of this magnitude, or if it reflects at least in part, greater comfort by teens with acknowledging a non-heterosexual identity on an anonymous questionnaire…—Dr. Andrew Adesman
It is reasonable that this explains some of the increase, but 41% over 5 years, and 100% increase over adults?  Not likely.
What’s this have to do with the Moral Law?
This is where Calvin’s Institutes, Book II helps us out.  Calvin explains that while Christians are saved by Grace through faith there is still validity to the Moral Law of God.  In that, he gives his “3 uses of the law”:

It is a Mirror – It shows us that we don’t live up to God’s standard.
It Restrains Evil in Society – Civil Law is modeled after the moral law.
It shows us what is pleasing to God and encourages us to walk in that manner by the Power of the Holy Spirit.

While there has been much controversy over the 3rd use of the Law being abandoned among Christians, we are seeing the same happen with the 2nd use of the Law.   This has even occurred among Christians who have bought into the lie that gay marriage should be allowed because we aren’t a Christian nation.  We are supposed to after-all have a separation between the Church and State, so the argument goes.
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