Joy in the Desert

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I need to explain my title, “Joy in the Desert.” My friend Kathy Smith told me that she didn’t like the title because she thinks the desert is beautiful. A lot of people do, and I don’t mean to knock it. But there’s a reason I’m using it in the podcast title.

I live in a beautiful mountain town in Southern California named Wrightwood. We are in the pine forest of the San Gabriel Mountains right in the middle of the Angeles National Forest. Below us sprawls the high desert of Southern California.

Certainly, the high desert supports life and a lot of it. There is vegetation, water, and flowers in the springtime. The Joshua trees provide food for many animals and insects. In Joshua Tree Park alone, there are 57 species of mammals, 46 species of reptiles, over 250 bird species, toads and frogs, and thriving insect life. The high desert is a place not of death, but of vibrant life.

Similar deserts that support life exist all over the Middle East. Ancient sheep herds foraged perfectly happily in these semi-arid deserts, and nomads roamed the deserts throughout their lifetimes.

However, the Bible often used the desert as an illustration of exile and wandering, of need and the journey. That’s what we are talking about it today, when we walk through the desert of uncertainty, heartache, sorrow, and loss.

But as believers, we are not alone there. God was with the ancient Hebrews as they wandered the desert I exile for 40 years, and He is with us today.

God walks with us through the desert. It’s where we meet Him and, having met Him, know Him.

If You Meet a Stranger in the Wilderness, Pretend you Didn’t

Several old civilizations believed, and some still believe today, that if you meet a stranger in the wilderness, do not acknowledge it. It might be human, but it is just as likely to be a spirit that means you no good, a hostile thing that comes from beyond the borders of our world to attack and consume the unwary traveler.

I know this sounds odd to us in our modern lives, and if I meet a stranger on a local hiking trail I’m more likely to wave and say hello that I am to suspect he’s a wendigo or a ghost.

But the basic idea is sound: the wilderness is a place where pretensions are stripped away, where direction is not always clear, where it is not always easy to find sustenance. In these settings, it is all too easy to rush for the first thing that looks like it might offer some comfort. If you need money, then grab the first opportunity that comes along. If you’re lonely, run full tilt into a relationship – anyone will do. If you blame God for not getting you out of this situation, then go after other gods.

This is the modern equivalent of rushing to greet the stranger in the wilderness, only to find out that it does you no good. Better to ignore the stranger, and follow God. Only He will lead you home.

Interview: Jane Burt

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Are you walking in the desert? Perhaps you found an oasis, or you may be right in the middle of desert sands. If this is you, then God has something to teach you. Ask yourself and God these questions:

  • When in your life have you wandered in the desert?
  • What did you need the most?
    • To know God
    • To be guided by God
    • To be saved by God
    • For God to provide for you
    • All of the above!
  • How did you experience God then?
  • If you are in the desert now, what do you need from God?

Pray and listen about the place the wilderness holds in your life as a believer. No matter where you are now, if you need guidance, provision, salvation a new hope, or all these things— our God is the God saves.