Wilderness Wonderings

Ruth Haley Barton uses the story of Elijah's successes and fears as the subtext for her Invitation to Solitude and Silence. She points out the uncomfortable truth that after every success may come fear and doubt. She assures that before any great encounter with Holy God comes a wilderness to cross. God often offers rest and restoration after a trial only so we will have the strength for the journey across the vast desert to that sweet place of communion in the hollow of Mt. Horeb.

So why do we panic at the prospect of the wildernesses of our lives and of our churches? It is plain. Nothing is attractive about the waterless places in our life where God seems remote; temptation is strong; the flesh is weak; the evil one breathes his hot breath on our necks; our vision is clouded; our memory of former intimacy with God grows dim. Nothing is attractive about the wilderness except... it is the path to a greater intimacy with God; a greater strength of the Spirit in our lives; a more crushing defeat for the evil one; a clearer view of the past, present and future of our lives in God. 

I know the wilderness—lately. I serve a church that knows the wilderness—lately. While the temptation to despair and self-pity besets us each day, the thought of what lies at the end of the journey thrills me and, I hope, all of us. So let's fall in love a bit with sun and sand and sky and journey on until nothing is more real than God in our presence and we in His.