Wilderness

Presbyterian Bloggers

Powered By Ringsurf

We would rather be ruined than changed.  We would rather die in our dread than climb the cross of the present and let our illusions die

          W.H. Auden

 

There is language going on out there- the language of the wild. Roars, snorts, trumpets, squeals, whoops, and chirps all have meaning derived over eons of expression... We have yet to become fluent in the language -and music- of the wild.”

Boyd Norton

 

What would the world be, once bereft

Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,

O let them be left, wildness and wet;

Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.

Gerard Manley Hopkins, Gerard Manley Hopkins: The Complete Poems

_________________________________

 

from the safety of the valley

I gaze at the looming mountain and wild unkempt places beyond

wild, ragged, and untamed

 

comfortable and safe

warm and dry

too well fed and well watered

I sit

 

Unchallenged and sedentary

 

and I think of the wilderness

and faith

 

our faith is a wilderness faith

Abram, prince of Haran (or so we think)

was sent into the wilderness

“go,” said God, “go south”

go into the wilderness, to the place I will show you”

 

and Abram nee Abraham, went

 

I think of the people of Israel

enslaved and oppressed

then freed

but sent into the wilderness

(where challenged they constantly murmured, “let us go back to our comfort”

and kept in the wilderness, until lessons were learned

 

I think of Elijah (I Kings 17) wandering into the wilderness

and sitting under a broom tree, asking to die

 

of John the Baptizer, roaring out of the wilderness

shouting “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand”

“Prepare the way”

 

faith it seems is not forged on couches or recliners

or even in pews

but in the wilderness

 

in those places when we are challenged

when we are dry and brittle

perhaps bewildered

lost

 

we usually see God as rescuing us from the wilderness

as One who comes into our lives and makes everything

smooth

 

Isaiah says that there is a time when we should

“clear a highway across the desert for our God

Every valley shall be lifted up,

every mountain and hill brought down;

the rugged place shall be made smooth

and mountain ranges become a plain. (Isaiah 40:3-4)

 

but God is not making a freeway in the desert so we can get out

we are called to be the ones who prepare the way

so that God can arrive

 

what God does is lead us through the wilderness

care for us in the wilderness

feeds us with manna in the wilderness

what God does is makes streams in the desert

 

the wilderness is tough

but important things, good things happened there

 

sometimes we need the wilderness

sometimes we need to move out of comfort, into unease

from certainty to bewilderment

 

sometimes we need to let go

and sometimes we need to learn to be led

 

it was in the wilderness that the people of Israel learned to be

the people of God’s heart

it was in the wilderness that Jesus confirmed the nature of his ministry

 

there will always be times

when we are called out of the valley into the wilderness

there will always be times to leave

our settled places

and go

 

go into the wilderness

to the place God will show

 

and the promise is simply this

that God will meet us there

 

and God’s new thing will happen

and God will lead us to the promised land

to the place we need to go