Wilderness

                                                                               

Distant.

So far away, your voice gives

No direction. No affirmation.

Numb.

What I feel, no emotion 

No true depth. No connection.

Silence.

All around me, voices -

You speak not. 

Waiting.

In the stillness, I wonder

To continue. No direction.

~ I am here. 

                                                      Acts 17: 24 – 27 

VS 27: That they should seek the Lord if haply they might feel after him . . 

Jonah. Elisha. David. A specific theme among these biblical characters surfaces when we exam their lives. Each had a specific task. Each completed their task. But somehow during the course of their assignment they found themselves in a ‘wilderness,’ the murky unknown, when what you see or can’t see doesn’t add up. It’s kind of like the game you played as a kid at a birthday party where you reach into a dark cloth bag and, and while your arm is still partially submerged, you feel around for an object and guess what it is. There are varying ways of how to play this game, but you get the point: guessing the outcome of something you cannot see. 

Oftentimes we want the ‘end of a thing’ before it’s even half over, before God is finished teaching us what He wants us to learn. That’s when trouble happens. No one enjoys re-taking a test after failing the first time. Among other things Jonah learned obedience, Elisha learned humility, and David learned patience. These truths didn’t come easy or quickly. 

Often our lessons aren’t easily seen (remember the cloth bag game?) Sometimes we need to ‘feel our way’ while we’re in the wilderness . . . But take heart.  The same God who formed the world, the nations, and set boundaries in place calls us to seek him – to feel after him, (and to remember) he is not far from us. 

He knows our outcome, its timing - the end of the thing. 

*Best not to rush the wilderness test. (Remember the Israelites’ 40-year lesson?)