In the Middle of the Desert

There are times in life when you find yourself in the middle of a desert place.

Perhaps you got there because you lost your way.  Perhaps you made a series of wrong turns.  Or perhaps you made just one wrong turn.

Perhaps your GPS tried to correct course, but you kept ignoring its warnings.  Or perhaps you entered the wrong destination into your GPS altogether and didn’t notice until it was too late. 

Perhaps you weren’t even the one at the wheel – you were just along for the ride.  You left the driving to someone else, fell asleep, and awoke to find yourself lost.  Or perhaps you tried to tell the driver that you were going the wrong way, but your guidance fell on deaf ears.

Perhaps you had no say in the matter at all.  Perhaps you were taken there against your will.  Perhaps you were banished there.

Perhaps it’s a different story altogether.  Perhaps you were flying high on the trip of a lifetime headed to a beautiful destination, when something suddenly went wrong, and you made a crash landing.

Regardless of how you got there, the end result is the same.  You are stranded, in the middle of the desert.

In the middle of the desert is a hard place to be.  Especially when you’ve been there a long time. 

In the beginning, you have hope.  Hope of a way out or hope of a rescue. You hope and you pray, and you hope some more. But with each passing day, no relief comes.

So you walk, and then walk some more, but no signs of civilization appear.  As far as the eye can see, there is nothing but sand and sky. And perched in the sky is a blistering sun that beats down and scorches your skin. 

The only relief comes after the sun sets.  So you find yourself longing for the night. But the night is cold.  And the night brings predators.  So you have to keep your guard up.  And you get no rest. So you begin to long for the dawn.

At dawn, you get a brief reprieve.  The air is still cool, and the terrors of the night have retreated.  You get a moment’s rest. But it doesn’t last long.  Soon enough you find yourself engulfed in the flames of the sun’s unrelenting fire once again.

It’s the same story day in and day out. 

So you find ways to stay alive.  Ways to find water.  Ways to find food.  Ways to find shelter. Ways to live in the middle of the desert.

But you’re not really living, you’re just surviving.

Days turn into months, and months turn into years.  And you begin to wonder if it’s worth it. What if this is all there is?  What if it never ends?  What if you’re stranded here forever?

Maybe you should just stop trying.  Stop trying to stay alive and just let the inevitable happen.

But just when you think all hope is lost, you spot something up ahead.  There, just over the horizon, you see it.  Signs of civilization. 

Hope resurfaces, and you have a burst of energy.  You press on with more fervor and more resolve.

But as you get closer, things start to morph and change shape.  The lines begin to blur.  The colors begin to fade.

And then it just disappears.  Heartache sets in as you realize it was all a mirage.

There will be many times like this on your desert journey.  Times when it seems like the end is in sight, when you think you’re about to reenter the land of the living, only to discover that it is an illusion.

An illusion – a false perception, a false belief, a false hope.

And you realize, false hope is worse than no hope at all.

You drop to your knees in despair.  Uncertain if you can take another step. You cry out to God, as you have so many times along the way, “What’s this all for?  Am I destined to die in this place?  And if so, why have you kept me alive for so long?”

You wrestle with these thoughts.  You wrestle with God – like Jacob in the Bible, you wrestle with God and survive, but you walk away with a limp in your step (Genesis 32:22-32).

But you keep walking nonetheless.  You reason that if God has kept you alive, He must have a purpose.

You don’t have to know what that purpose is in order to keep going.  You don’t have to know how much longer the journey will be.  You just have to resolve to keep going.

As long as God continues to sustain you, you keep moving forward, even when the journey is long.  Even when there is no end in sight.  Even when it doesn’t make sense. 

Sometimes, all God asks of you is to keep going, even if you don’t know where or why. 

So, you keep going and doing what God asks of you.  You give up your will for God’s will.  You seek God’s face more than you seek an end to your journey.

That’s how you live in the middle of the desert.

Surrender all to God, seek His face, receive His peace, rest in His presence – and give thanks in all circumstances (1 Thessalonians 5:18). Not thanks for all circumstances, but thanks in all circumstances. 

That’s what you learn from life in the middle of the desert.

You used to long for life the way it was before, but time as a desert-dweller has changed you.  And even if you find your way back to civilization, you know that life will never be the same.  You can’t go back to the way life was before – nor do you want to.

While you do not wish to repeat this journey, nor do you wish to stay where you are, you are thankful for how God has sustained you and transformed you along the way.

You smile as you ponder this thought, “God doesn’t always change our circumstances, rather, sometimes He uses our circumstances to change us.”

Up ahead, you see something in the distance.  Signs of life, signs of civilization.  Is it real … or is it another mirage? You’re not sure.  You don’t really concern yourself with it.  You just keep walking towards it.

You don’t get your hopes up, nor do you prepare yourself for disappointment. You just keep walking, step-in-step with God. 

For by now, you have realized, time in the desert is not wasted.  Time in the desert is transforming. With each step of the way, God is transforming you into His image with ever-increasing glory (2 Corinthians 3:18).

And even if you spend your last days on earth in the middle of the desert, you will have reached your destination.  For you now know, transformation was the destination all along.