There is a newer, and really fun praise song people sing at churches all over. It’s actually just called “Praise.” There’s a line in that song that I was thinking about this morning. It says, “I’ll praise when I feel it, and I’ll praise when I don’t.” I’ve been reflecting on this idea of moving and acting despite not feeling.

There are seasons that I would describe as neuropathy of the soul. Neuropathy occurs when there’s been damage to the nerves, causing symptoms like numbness, tingling, and even pain. Ironically, sometimes losing feeling actually hurts. These are the real-life symptoms of a physical condition. However, I would argue that neuropathy of the soul functions in much the same way. These are seasons of numbness, doldrums in life with no wind to guide or move you. It’s like you’re just stuck or suspended there, with motivation or emotion. Yet, even in that place, as believers, we have a choice to make.

We can choose to actively pursue, praise, and walk by faith even when we don’t feel like it. When I feel no motivation to lift my hands in praise, I can still lift my hands in praise. When reading scripture feels like just reading other words on a page, I can still read the words on the pages of scripture. When singing praise songs feels pointless and joyless, I can still sing praises. When praying feels like sending words into a void or as if the words are bouncing right off the ceiling and coming back at me, I can still pray. Even when I don’t feel the drive to pursue God passionately, I can still choose to pursue Him passionately. My faith is not based on my feelings. I don’t serve God because it feels good or even because I want to. I am compelled to serve God out of absolute gratitude because of His boundless grace. And even when I don’t feel it, the truth of His boundless grace has not changed. Not only am I compelled out of gratitude to serve the Lord, but there’s also nourishment and hunger that can only be met through connection with the Lord.

Often, when you have a fever or some kind of cold symptom, you can lose your desire for food, not your need for it. Primarily, people lose their hunger because they can’t taste the food. When you can’t taste the food, even though you still need it, your desire for it reduces. This is what happens during this season of neuropathy of the soul. It’s almost as if I can’t taste and see that the Lord is good; instead, I just have faith that He is. This is harder. To want to eat when there is no desire or motivation to. Where previously I felt the full effects of joy and peace, it was sweet, and my soul longed for that refreshing. When the same nourishment is like sawdust in my mouth, even good things are hard to swallow. Sometimes it’s like that. There’s no sweetness even to things that are sweet, no enjoyment in taking in nourishment. There’s no flavor, but it’s not because there’s no flavor; it’s because you can’t taste it. The food hasn’t changed; your ability to taste it and recognize the sweetness has. When you don’t feel it, when your walk with the Lord and all His blessings, His sustaining grace, have not lost their sweetness or somehow seem to have become less, we just can’t feel it, the truth has not changed.

Do you stop eating because you can’t taste the food? No, if you did, you would die from lack of nourishment. Your body still requires nourishment even if there’s no enjoyment in receiving it. It’s the same for your soul. There is never a moment when you do not need the nourishment that only comes from the bread of life. There’s never a moment when you do not require the water from the well that never runs dry. When you feel it and when you don’t, the only way to do anything in the daily life of a believer is to stay connected to the vine. We must draw from and seek God at all times. When we feel the amazing connectedness and joy in that relationship, when there’s sweetness that we can savor, and when we feel nothing at all. We can recognize that those are just seasons of neuropathy of the soul or times when we’ve come to a place in the ocean of our life where we are stuck in a doldrum. Our position might be different than it had been, but God has not changed. He is still amazing even if, when we look, we do not feel any wonder.

So what do we do? What is our response to these times of numbness, times where there’s no intrinsic or extrinsic motivation to seek and stay connected? It’s simple: we eat anyway. Those are the moments that we choose to walk by faith and believe in something that we can’t feel or see but that we know is true. Those are times we choose to seek what our soul doesn’t even recognize in that moment that we need but we know that we do. These are times of trial where we are tested in a very specific way to see if we will continue to pursue God and serve even when there is no benefit or it feels like there’s no easy, quick-win benefit for us. If I only serve God when it feels good, if I only seek God when it’s easy, what kind of service and seeking is that?

If your response to this is, “I’ve never felt that way and I never will,” I have news for you: you will. All of us go through these times, and all of us as believers have a choice to make regarding our reaction and our action in those moments. It’s fun to say, “I’ll praise when I feel it and I’ll praise when I don’t,” but it’s not so much fun to actually have to choose to praise when you don’t feel it. That’s when our act of worship becomes a sacrifice of praise and an act of faith.

This journey with the Lord requires nourishment and connection every day and every moment. So when you feel it and when you don’t—regardless of your feelings—I challenge you to pursue God anyway. Remind yourself when it feels joyless and there’s no sweetness in the pursuing to keep pressing on. Remember, we live not by sight but by faith, and we pursue God not by feelings but by faith. And because of our faith we pray. “Lord, when we don’t, We still will because we need you always! Help us Lord never to forget that!” You are my God when I feel it, and when I don’t! You are the one I serve when I feel it and when I don’t! And I will seek you always – when I want to and when I don’t! – I will preserve and believe by faith!