Found in the Desert Place February 25, 2008

For the last week or so, I have been reading a really interesting book about the lives of the Desert Mothers, who, in the early years of the Christian faith, moved to the deserts in the north of Egypt and devoted themselves to a life of prayer.

I’m reading it because I have recognised the need to chill out, to stop and silence my world some more, to practice the disciplines of stillness that I know a lot about in theory but struggle with in practice.

Thinking out the desert, it struck me that we often use it as a metaphor for aridity, spiritual dryness, places of struggle and hardship in our journey. Even yesterday we sang, “Blessed Be Your name
When I’m found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness…”

As I’ve been reading through the book and thinking about how to implement some of the suggestions it presents, it has struck me that, for these women, the desert places were not places of dryness and despair; but of life and growth & deepening.

This led me to think some more about the place of the desert in scripture, and in my own life:

- In Exodus, the Israelites leave Eqypt to journey to the promised land. Exodus 8:27 says: “We must take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God, as he commands us.” This is supposed to be a short journey but it lasts 40 years. Later it is referred to, not as the desert but as the ‘wilderness’. This makes me think that sometimes God takes us into the desert as part of a transition, a journey from one place, experience or season; so we can spend time apart with him before entering the new things. I guess the lesson for me from the Israelites is to remain open to God’s direction in this place, to not get stuck there, thinking he has deserted me.

- The desert can be a place of miracle & provision. For the Israelites it was a place where God sent food and made his presence tangible and real. It was also a place where he spoke to them about their destiny. For us, too, the ‘in-between places’ give us an opportunity to experience having to trust in him and finding him faithful. Deuteronomy 8:15 backs this up: “He led you through the vast and dreadful  desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock.”

Deuteronomy 32:10 is also good: ” In a desert land he found him, in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye.”

- For Elijah & David, the desert was a place of refuge from danger. David writes Psalm 63 from this location: “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” (Ps. 63:1).

- In Mark 1, we read about Jesus’ experiences in the desert. He is led there by the Spirit of God, this is no accidental wandering. We are told that angels attended him there, but we are not given much detail about what he does. What is described to us in more fullness is Jesus’ experiences with temptation during this time, how the devil presents him with a number of options which would seem to make his time in the desert, and his whole ministry after that a whole lot easier (Matthew 4:1-11). Jesus rejects all of these temptations and stands strong. This makes me think that desert times for us are often times when we are honed spiritually, when we face some of the toughest temptations, and where the neat exterior things of our faith are stripped away and we grapple with what we truly believe.

One of the quotes that jumped out from the book I am reading is as follows: “The desert is a place of spiritual revolution, not of personal retreat. It is a place of deep encounter, not of superficial escape. It is a place of repentance, not recuperation.” (John Chryssavgis, quoted in: The Desert Mothers, Mary C Earle, Chapter 10).

All this stuff makes me continue to think that things are so often not as they seem, there is so often a bigger picture plan going on. When we are in the desert places, it can be appealing to just try and get through them as soon as possible, to keep our heads down and to keep walking, hoping the sand doesn’t burn our feet too badly.

I’m thinking that I want to slow down my pace a little though, to stop, listen and ask God what he wants to teach me even in, and especially in these desert places.