A Changed Perspective

The idea of walking through a wilderness has been running around in my mind for about 4 years. Throughout my life, I’ve heard messages, songs and testimonies about people who prayed to be free of “wilderness experiences” and people who taught that we should do all we can to avoid them all together. The terms were varied but synonymous: wilderness, wasteland, desert, valley. The subtle message was that anything hard is evil and God’s blessing produces an easy, prosperous, smooth and comfortable life. It doesn’t take a deep dive into Scripture to know that couldn’t be further from the truth. We read about all sorts of difficulties both imposed on the people of God as well as caused by the people of God. It seems that we will inevitably experience both. However, it wasn’t this idea of expecting and tolerating these seasons that captured my attention, it was the thought that, maybe, these seasons were actually holy and good. If that’s the case,  why is it so hard, as believers, to embrace and accept the wilderness moments of our lives? 

A little word study of “wilderness” uncovers these defining words. Unknown, uncultivated, barren, devastated, wild, uninhabited, desolate, deserted, lonely, and dangerous.  Does that ring true with you as you think about our world? Do you know people that feel this way? Or, could it describe your own heart? It’s been an uncharted, crazy, scary and lonely time for me and I’ll be really honest in saying that I wish I could have walked any other path than this one. The thought of embracing the wilderness has been offensive at times, but I know that God has been speaking to me about it for a while which usually means it’s for a reason. So, the question becomes, what if God is using this barren, devastated, desolate time to speak? What if he’s wanting to reach the hearts of his people?  What if we have the choice of taking this wilderness and turning it into something new and beautiful? Maybe even reviving a desolate and barren world.

I marked Hosea 2:14-15 in my Bible almost 2 years ago. 

“Therefore I am now going to allure her: I will lead her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she will respond as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.”

In the middle of a passage about God’s judgement on Israel for her disobedience, he breaks in with this promise to draw her heart back to him and to bless her. The Valley of Achor can be translated as the Valley of Trouble. In other words,  God may lead  us into the wilderness, or even into trouble, for the purpose of  pursuing our hearts and restoring our relationship with him.

The question is, how will we respond?  It’s possible to be led into the wilderness and to come out on the other side bitter, afraid and empty. It’s also possible to come out of the wilderness full of more love, peace and power than ever before. I desperately wanted to know the secret of responding in a way that produced the latter?   

For the longest time, I couldn’t put my finger on what that was but a message by Kristi McLelland gave shed some light on it for me. As a professor, teacher and student of Jewish and middle eastern culture, her insight forever changed how I viewed the various difficulties of life.  In a nutshell, the answer seems to be found in my perspective and expectations of those seasons.  You see, the Jewish culture views the wilderness as a blessing because the wilderness is where God always gave his word to his people.  It’s where his voice was clearly heard. From Abraham to Jesus, God showed up in the wilderness and taught his people things that they wouldn’t (or couldn’t) have learned anywhere else. The wilderness was a holy place because it’s where they met with God.  The Jewish people did not ask ,“How can I get out of here quickly,” They asked, “How can I carry the wilderness with me so that I don’t forget the word God has spoken to me?”  (“Jesus & Women” Lifeway)

How we will walk out of the wilderness is based on what we focus on during it. The circumstances swirling around us or the quiet work that God is doing in the middle of it?  Are we overwhelmed and consumed or have we locked eyes with Jesus? The answer to that is determined by what we love and trust the most? Other people, our safety, our health, money or our significance? Personally,I often fall into fear or depression when any one of these things seems to be out of control – as if I ever had control to begin with. In fact, some of these things have actually lead me down a straight path into the wilderness but God is good to meet me there even when it’s due to my own failures.

He is wonderful that way.

And it can be a wonderful place to be.

In his hands, the wilderness can set us firmly on the only thing that is certain. Him! That, in and of itself, is a precious reason to walk out these moments faithfully. To have our hearts called back to his and to know without a doubt that he is the only place of peace. So how can we get from the hard place to that place?

For me, the best thing I can do is press in HARD for what God is saying. Sometimes it’s difficult to hear after so many years of listening to other things. I’ve had to cut the noise from my life because it was drowning out his voice. That can be so hard but what if it brings change? What if it brings God closer? What if it settles our heart in peace?

Viewing the wilderness as a place to meet with God means I set my expectations on higher things than just surviving, and I’m willing to do hard things because the hope of what’s on the other side is more beautiful than I can imagine. It means I change my habits and cultivate new ones so I don’t drown in the fear and sorrow of the wilderness. It means I believe that peace comes from focusing on the one who is above the storm so I fight the urge to focus on the storm itself. God’s presence always brings peace even in the worst of situations. Pressing in to know him there will better equip us for the next wilderness we travel through. It’s all a journey, but Jeremiah 17:7-8 shows us a beautiful picture of what that can look like.

“But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green and they never stop producing fruit.” 

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