Barry is a chaplain I’ve worked with for several years. He has an odd southern Methodist charm about him, and an uncanny way of simplifying disciplines down to a widely receivable message, but without diluting the truth. Not exactly a common talent. Today he spoke about the Wilderness.
Traditionally this Sunday, being the first Sunday of Lent, is meant to focus on Jesus entering the Wilderness and facing temptation after his baptism. And that’s what he talked on. The concept of what the Wilderness is. More than the geographical landscape that Jesus physically wandered through, but more the personal, less recognizable Wilderness that we all can find ourselves in. That loss of comfort, the loneliness, the finding yourself in a place and down a road that you never thought you’d ever be and doing things you swore you’d never do, the deep psychological emotional internal Wilderness. It’s where you realize that everything you thought you were close to is suddenly very far way, where things you saw in black & white are suddenly varying and fading shades of gray, where you’re dying of thirst and freezing to death all at once. And in this deep dark mess is a Battleground.
Not wanting to sound like a “fire and brimstone” concept, but this Wilderness becomes the Battleground for your soul. A Battleground for your mental well-being, your values and beliefs, for who you are. I’m a person who believes that the forces of God and Satan (or of good and evil if you like) are constantly and actually fighting battles for His children. Unseen forces locked in fatal struggles for your soul. Perhaps it’s a more romantic notion, but I can’t see God leaving us to fight on our own. We can’t. We try, but that’s how we find ourselves in the Wilderness. And that’s the purpose of the Wilderness, to find your way back to Him so He can lead your home. So much easier said than done. Think of Peter walking on the waters of the stormy Sea of Galilee, when all he had to do was focus on Jesus but his present circumstances distracted him too much, and he had the benefit of having Jesus directly and physically in front of him.
God knows your Wilderness, and even though you may not feel Him nearby, He has not and will not leave you to wander alone. He loves you too much. He also loves you too much to stop you from entering the Wilderness. Like a parent who knows that life lessons are best learned the hard way and having to watch their child struggle, knowing that in the end it’s for the best.
Everything is according to His plan and for His purpose. He love you. He won’t leave you. He’s always there, even in the Wilderness.
