It's all about what happens in the wilderness. None of us like the wilderness unless you like hiking or wildlife safaris or some other wilderness adventure of your choosing. But true wilderness isn't a vacation away from your everyday life. True wilderness is wild, untamed, dangerous, and unwelcoming.
In Morocco, we decided to go on a hike in the Atlas Mountains. The air was still, incredibly hot and the sun unforgiving. There was no shade to be found and we realised after we set out that we were very unprepared for the hike ahead. We assumed that because we hike a lot back home and this was a relatively short hike of only 5 miles that seemed straightforward, we would manage fine. Little did we know that our phones wouldn't have signal and there would be so many false trails. "Stay left. Always left," the man at the bottom of the mountain said. And, thank you, Jesus, that he did because it saved us.
At points along the hike we just wanted to be done because of the discomfort of the heat and the possibility that we were lost. In some ways the disorientation made us not appreciate the beauty and the calm around us. Had we slowed down we may not have sweat so much, needed as much water and wouldn't have taken so many wrong turns. We did make it out though and we made it out learning so many lessons about our own foolishness and our need for guidance. Sometimes rushing out of the wilderness causes more chaos.
The Bible talks about the wilderness a lot.
"The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness" - Psalm 29:8
"The pastures of the wilderness overflow" - Psalm 65:12
"Can God spread a table in the wilderness?" - Psalm 78:19
"The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness." - Mark 1:12
Even if the Bible doesn't speak the word "wilderness", it speaks of it in the sense of lack, isolation, anything less than Eden. And really, our every day lives are always less than Eden: less than the perfect life we were created for. We don't like being in the wilderness in our lives. We don't like when we lack comfort, food, peace, the perfect life we think we should have. Everything around us says that we should strive to make sure that we are never in want. And if you are in want? Well, you need to put your hand to the plow and get working because that good life will become yours if you want it bad enough.
Is that what God wants for us? In the Bible, humans are constantly put in positions where they can have the good life: they can have Eden. Adam and Eve had Eden. Cain and Abel were at the door of Eden. The Israelites were being led to the Promised Land: Eden. Noah created Eden after the ark. Soloman created Eden through wisdom and wealth. They all had it in sight...and they messed it up. Really messed it up. In reality, we've never been able to handle Eden. Our greatest blessings have always come in the wilderness.
That's uncomfortable. I don't like pain and I don't like want. Yet, I know that every time I'm in a wilderness season when life feels really hard and really uncomfortable I experience the voice of God and his guidance more than when I'm in a season of plenty. Why? Because it's in my weakness that I have to cling to his goodness as a promise because everything around me points to a life so far away from Eden. It's in the wilderness that I experience the greatest growth because I cannot depend on my strength or my own resourcefulness. I have literally nothing left.
Healing is good. Health is good. Provision is good. Relationships are good. But maybe instead of trying to escape the wilderness seasons in our life as fast as we can we should take our time. We should sit in the discomfort and see it not as a curse but as a blessing that allows us to grow. If you have good earthly parents or maybe you are one, you'll know that you have to place your kids in situations that are hard and uncomfortable because you know that they will never mature and become the people you want them to be without it. Always being comfortable with no lack doesn't make your kids grow, it makes them stagnate.
God is the exact same. Life with no wilderness means that Eden is worthless.
