Are you here, too?
Peter replied, “Lord, to whom shall we go?”
John 6:68 NIV
This summer, I keep coming back to the wilderness. Or maybe I should say the wilderness keeps coming back to me?
It’s been in sermons. It’s been a topic shared by a favorite author (look up Hannah Brencher, if you’re interested). It’s in the daily verses on my phone. It was in a podcast this morning. A friend even texted to say it was being mentioned on the morning news…
And it’s all terribly relevant since I feel lost in a place where I don’t know the sights and sounds.
And the idea of being in the wilderness is scary, whether it’s the desert or mountains in Arizona, the wide open plains in Kansas or the span of the ocean. There aren’t a lot of options for protection from the storms. It’s easy to lose my way without knowing the area. I wouldn’t know how to find the best food or water.
The crazy thing I hadn’t put together before was that Jesus was “led by the Spirit into the wilderness” (Luke 4:2). He was led into the wilderness; not drug, not shoved and not thrown. Really!
I guarantee God got me here kicking and screaming.
And yet, this is what I know to be true: I know I’m somewhere in the wilderness. It’s not the location I would have picked. But God has demonstrated over and over, in my life, that his plan is so much better than the silly little plan I had made up for myself.
I need to take a minute to stop the kicking and screaming. To let go of the wishing to be somewhere else. To take a breath and look around.
God has demonstrated his staying power to me. I need to respond to him with “Lord, where else would I go?”, and keep taking one step at a time as he leads me.
Let’s keep reminding each other that God will lead us through. It’s just so easy to forget in the day to day.
Ellie in Tucson, AZ; April 2019.
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