'...the most fertile quadrant in the north-west part of the land of the Bible - the Jezreel valley and surrounding territory - was the location of the worst apostasy, unfaithfulness, and rejection of God anywhere in the land. Where conditions were most ripe and most hospitable, people tended to forget God, to wander from God, even to outright reject him. But correspondingly, the opposite quadrant - the most arid, dry, hostile, and forsaken part of the land - is where God met people in the quiet desolation of their souls.
This is a strong metaphor for us. When the circumstances of life are comfortable, we are more likely to drift from God. We are in danger of believing that we can be self-sufficient, and faith in God can become merely an intellectual exercise. But when we find ourselves in the desolation of loneliness and pain, doubt and desertion, deprivation and despair, there God meets us - even when we can't hear his voice. This is the way God works.'
Michael S Beates, Disability & The Gospel, p.51.
