Life in the Wilderness

Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. Deuteronomy 8:2 NIV

What do you do when you find yourself in a wilderness? Lesly, Soleiny, Tien, and Cristin literally found themselves in a jungle wilderness. Along with their mother, they had fled warring factions in Colombia’s rural area who were forcibly recruiting children by threatening violence.  The children, ages 13, 9, 5, and 1 survived a five-week ordeal in the Amazon jungle after being the sole survivors of an airplane crash. The plane crashed killed their mother and two other adults and began their journey of survival in the wilderness.

A united search team of Colombian army personnel and volunteers from several indigenous tribes combed the dense jungle in search of the children. “Brig. Gen. Pedro Sanchez, who led Operation Hope, said that in the jungle, trees can grow 100 feet or taller, blocking light and making it hard to see someone just a few meters away.” Lesly and her siblings were found in a small clearing after 40 days, surviving on cassava flour, seeds, and the rainforest’s fruit. They were hungry but alive.  (from an AP news article and Julie Turkewitz and Genevieve Glatsky)

“The desert is not remote in southern tropics,

The desert is not only around the corner,

The desert is squeezed in the tube-train next to you.

The desert is in the heart of your brother.” (T.S. Eliot, Choruses from the Rock)

Life in the wilderness can be a frightening and challenging place. You may find yourself there through an accident, from a poor decision, or no fault of your own. It doesn’t matter how you get to the wilderness, you have to find a way to survive until you can find your way home.

“When in the wilderness you are one blink of an eye from being fully awake.” I have no idea the context in which nature photographer Robbie George said this quote, but I believe there is a spiritual lesson in it. When you find yourself in the wilderness, remember it can be a place of growth, change, and reflection.

Life in the wilderness can be a place of preparation. Moses was a future leader. He had been miraculously rescued as a baby, brought up among the elite of society, provided the best education possible, and yet failed to meet God’s standard. Moses escaped to the wilderness and ended up tending sheep. Life in the wilderness prepared him for God’s assignment. “So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt. “(Ex 3:10) Finally he was ready for leadership.

Life in the wilderness can be a place of testing. I don’t know too many people who enjoy times of testing, yet it is in this season that you can grow stronger. Jesus experienced the wilderness of testing before beginning his ministry. “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted (tested) by the devil.” (Matt 4:1) “The devil tries to seduce him with instant power, authority, and wealth apart from the way of the cross…Jesus’s three temptations represent the three great potential vulnerabilities of those who would truly follow God: the need to be relevant; the need to be significant; the need to be powerful.” (Daniel McGregor) As we know, Jesus passed the wilderness test.

Life in the wilderness can be a holy place. The wilderness strips away all the comfort and ease of life, allowing you to see with clarity and understanding. It was in the wilderness that Abraham “called on the name of the LORD.” (Gen 13:4) It was in the wilderness that Moses was told, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” (Gen 3:5). It was out of the wilderness that John the Baptist appeared, “preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” (Mark 1:4) God’s presence changed the wilderness to holy ground.

Life in the wilderness can be a place of prayer and intimacy. “The silence of tranquility can be found in the sanctuary of the wilderness.” (Robbie George) In the wilderness, Jesus would escape the noise and pressures of ministry to be with God. “Yet He frequently withdrew to the wilderness to pray.” (Luke 5:16) “In those days Jesus went out to the mountain to pray, and He spent the night in prayer to God.” (Luke 6:12)

In the early centuries of church history, groups of men and women left the cities to move into the wilderness, not to escape persecution but to avoid losing a deeper life with Jesus. When Roman Emperor Constantine embraced Christianity, elevating it to a favored status, there was a major shift among Christians. Though it made Christianity acceptable, it also opened the door to nominalism, accommodation, and compromise. It would be in the wilderness that this group of men and women would go to pray, witness, and encourage the church to stay strong for God.

David was a man who spent a lot of time in the wilderness. You find him in the wilderness as a shepherd protecting his flock, running from a king who wanted him dead, and ultimately running from God because of his sinful actions. Yet it was in the wilderness that he found forgiveness, restoration, and renewal. Only someone who has been in the wilderness can write, “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” (Psalm 23:4) Frederick Tiffany writes, “God provides a way through the desert. The chaos of the wilderness poses no real threat; neither does it need to be the occasion of struggle. The Lord is in control, and a people has been formed. With the defeat of chaos comes the creation of a new people.”

Your wilderness experience will look totally different from my wilderness. Yet it is in the wilderness that each of us can find God’s grace to keep going, His mercy to endure, and His love that holds us tight.

God is great!