Can I find beauty in my wilderness journey?

August 2, 2013: Can I find beauty in my wilderness journey? Please “Share” this link to a new Precious Prodigal Blog Post: http://wp.me/p1D8dQ-c3

1 Peter 5:7 “Casting all your cares upon him for he careth for you.”

This is a travel day, and we are sitting at an airport terminal in Houston with a long layover before our plane arrives. Because I’m a people watcher, I find it interesting to see the people walk by and wonder who they are and what they’re about. I don’t know them, and they don’t know me, so it’s all speculation.

Even if we took time to chat, I wouldn’t remember them because there’s no personal connection. They are strangers to me just as I am to them. I wouldn’t share my burdens with them, of course, for that same reason. They really wouldn’t be able to understand or share my burdens because they don’t know or love me…I’m not precious to them. And they really wouldn’t understand how difficult my journey is.

It’s understandable when strangers don’t understand or care, but what about those who do know us, who do care about us, who do know ours is not an easy path? And there are many things about loving a prodigal that aren’t easy. I could make a list and so, no doubt, could you. Regardless of how different our lists were, one thing we would have in common is that we feel sometimes that no one understands or cares that we are hurting. And that’s probably the truth. People get busy with their own lives, their victories and defeats, their joys and their own burdens. To expect them to be there for us 100 percent of the time is totally unreasonable.

But there is one friend, who sticks closer than a brother (Prov 18:24), and He both understands and cares. Isaiah 53:4 tells us, “ he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows…” I’m reminded of a story about a man who was carrying a heavy backpack when a farmer driving a wagon stopped and offered him a ride. The grateful traveler climbed aboard, but he kept that heavy backpack strapped securely to his back. When the puzzled farmer asked why he didn’t lay the backpack on the wagon, the traveler answered, “You’re doing enough to carry me without carrying my backpack.”

That’s a silly story, but are we really any different from our traveling friend? We give our heart and lives to the Lord, but we don’t want to lay the burdens down. We don’t have to carry them anymore, and God’s carrying them isn’t conditional on our giving those burdens to Him; it’s a done deal. He is already carrying them. In telling us to “cast our cares upon Him,” the Scripture is just telling us to “shake it off” because it doesn’t belong to us anymore. It belongs to the One who cared enough to give Himself for us.

Is your burden heavy today? Do people not understand or seem to care? It can be a lonely feeling to love a prodigal, but you’re not alone, believer. Jesus truly does stick closer than a brother, and He does understand. You and I are precious to Him (Isaiah 43:4). People are just people, and they will disappoint us no matter how much they or we wish that weren’t true. But then they were never meant to carry the things that weigh us down. Our Abba Father is already doing that. Our part is to let them go.

Challenge for Today: Can you, just for today, believe that you don’t have to carry that burden? Can you lay it down?

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Am I stuck in my wilderness journey?

Posted on July 30, 2013

Psalm 30:5 “weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.”

 We’re driving from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon this morning. It’s a four-hour drive, which is mostly through a desert wilderness. My geologist husband tells me this is called a “high desert” because of its elevation, but the elevation doesn’t stop it from being a desert. You would hardly call this a hard trek through the wilderness when we are traveling at 70 miles per hour in the air-conditioned comfort of our rental car, but it is a wilderness nonetheless.

There’s not a lot of color in this mountainous wilderness…it’s mostly drab variations of grays and browns with a little bit of green here and there. No trees, no lakes, no flowers, none of the things my eyes are used to seeing in my usual comfortable environment. There doesn’t seem to be much that is comforting or inviting about this area, and there’s a straight, well-paved road out. Along the side of that road, someone had pitched a tent, so people choose to camp or even live there in that wilderness, and I have to wonder why.

I’m sure there are things that are desirable about the environment of this area, or people wouldn’t choose to live or camp there. However, the same can’t be said about the spiritual wilderness that is too often home for those of us who love a prodigal. God’s plan is not for us to stay in that wilderness, but to pass through it and come out on the other side.

As far as I could see both behind and ahead of me, the road seemed to lead through more of the same. However, after we crossed over a hill that was no different than any of the other hills we had already crossed, there was a town with all the comforts you could desire (including coffee). When we left that little oasis, there was more wilderness to go through, but our bodies and spirits were refreshed. And I know the beauty of God’s handiwork is waiting for me at the Grand Canyon. All I have to do is keep on traveling until I get there.

Your wilderness may seem unending too. However, there’s victory and even joy waiting for you when you have finished your journey. And I’m not talking about the end of your life; I’m talking about the end of your wilderness. Because you aren’t going to be there forever. Even though your “weeping may endure for the night,” joy really is going to come in the morning. (Psalm 30:5)

However, the only way out of the wilderness is to go through it. There are no short cuts. The challenge for you, for me is to keep putting one foot in front of the other, trusting we’re going to come out on the other side even though we can’t see it with our limited vision. And we can remind ourselves that we don’t have to pitch a tent and stay there, and we certainly don’t have to homestead there.

Challenge for Today: Can you, just for today, remember there will be an end to your wilderness journey? Can you look for that end with eyes of faith, believing God hasn’t forsaken or forgotten you?

August 2, 2013:

Can I find beauty in my wilderness journey?

Psalm 84:6 “Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools.”

 

Two days in the wilderness surrounding the Grand Canyon can be an eye-opener, especially if some of the people with you are gifted photographers. The canyon itself is huge, approximately the size of Delaware. Because of its size alone, it’s impossible to take it all in at once. I could have stood in one spot and just let the panorama of that majestic view overwhelm me. It’s impossible to describe a place like that…a place of rugged beauty so great so that it almost demands deep breaths and quiet contemplation.

 

Our friends, Larry and Eileen, are both gifted, interpretive photographers, and they know the Grand Canyon well and visit it often. So it was interesting to see it through their eyes as well as our own. We watched the sunset and sunrise from different locations, and there was great beauty at both. We watched the graceful condors and just drank in the beauty of God’s handiwork.

 

However, when we changed our focus and looked at what Larry and Eileen were doing, we were amazed. While our attention was completely centered on the vastness of this barren place, Larry and Eileen were snapping pictures everywhere else. And what we saw as barren, they photographed teeming with life. And it was…teeming with life, I mean.

 

There were the largest, fattest squirrels I have every seen and chipmunks and birds of so many varieties that I lost count. There were elk and deer everywhere there were even a few blades of grass. And there were flowers and moths that hovered like hummingbirds to pollinate those flowers. The harsh, unyielding beauty of the canyon so demanded our attention that we couldn’t see the smaller but equally beautiful parts of that wilderness. However, I know it was there because our friends captured the images on film. And when I looked at the things they pointed out, I saw them too.

 

It reminded me that there is also beauty to be found in my spiritual wilderness if I can just look at things a little differently. Our God is a creator, and He gives beauty to everything He touches…even that wilderness that seems so harsh and ugly when we are looking at it through untrained eyes. But there was so much more going on around me, and I was too inexperienced and overwhelmed to see. It’s the kind of blindness that caused me to write the words, “For on the ground, surrounded by the rain/with vision limited, I see my pain/But I can know the sun shines way above/and I rest in God’s unchanging love.

 

It had rained during the night, and when we arrived at the Canyon early the next morning to watch the sunrise, there were still puddles or “pools” of water in a few places. It spoke to me of God’s blessing of rain or refreshing in that wilderness. If you are even now in the Valley of Baca, it really is a wilderness…a harsh and brutal place that is also called the Valley of Weeping. And although the size and apparent barrenness of that wilderness may be overwhelming, there’s beauty to be found by you and by me if we’ll just open our eyes and look for it.

 

Challenge for Today: Can you, just for today, ask God to open your eyes so you can see the richness of His blessing in the wilderness?

Author's Note

August 2, 2013:
Can I find beauty in my wilderness journey?
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