I believe I am at a place where its necessary for me to be in the wilderness right now. I need to regroup on what God is doing in and through me. One thing that was most freeing for me through all of this was the other night when I was talking to my mentor she said, “its not about him. it is not even about you. It is about whether or not we are giving God the glory!” I could repeat my statement here from last night when I quoted the line from the song How He Loves… He is jealous for me.

Have you ever read this: The 1964 Wilderness Act states that wilderness, “…in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.”

I don’t know about you, but I don’t think the wilderness is a place we can create for ourselves nor do I think its a place we dictate the functionality. We are simply a visitor and will not remain there. Like I said earlier – He did not leave them in the wilderness. Kinda cool, huh? Typically, I would think of the wilderness as a dark deep place in the middle of NOWHERE – sounds kind of depressing and boring. But then I saw this picture and I’m not sure this image will disappear when I mention the wilderness I am in.

As time has passed by these past couple of weeks – it seems like some days get longer and lonelier. I told Savy right before school ended that the Summer is just different. For the freshmen…”just different” is hard to explain until they experience it. It doesn’t take too many weeks (or for some days) to come to the conclusion that the song “school’s out for the summer” isn’t exactly what they were hoping for. Ok, what does that have to do with the wilderness? Well, let me just share something with you…

Because we function on an academic calendar (August – April), we have those three months off that we aren’t sure what to do with. This is where you have a choice! I believe that all of us crawl out of the super speed of light pace of life to something else. That something else is different for each one of us and could be any where in the world…literally. For me the something else is typically the wilderness. And no, I don’t mean, “lions, tigers and bears…oh my!” although in the Bible we see where God sends several people into the wilderness.

Wilderness can be lonely.

Wilderness can be renewing.

Wilderness can be scary.

Wilderness can be vital.

Wilderness can be just what we don’t want, but NEED!

During our time in the wilderness we have a choice like I mentioned before. You can embrace that the Lord is teaching you something during your lonely isolation and do something with that lesson learned. OR you can run from it and roll in misery to walk away with less than you had before. I don’t like to fight, but I do have to admit I have done my share of running from God’s call of ministry.

What does this wilderness and summer break have to do with each other. I don’t know about you, but when summer time comes I get the opportunity to do things I don’t typically get to think about or partake in during the school year. It is at this point that I have to choose JESUS and to seize opportunities to learn, read, grow, serve, worship, rest. Otherwise, satan is so good at coming in to attack my thoughts and even cause me to justify wrong actions. No, I am not saying I just go off the deep end or rock the boat. I see it to not be as easy (less routine) to be in fellowship with other believers, to read and educate myself more, and to spend time seeking the face of God. I do believe that when we have lots of time to sit and reflect, think, or dwell we allow deception and lies to creep up on us. Yet I also know that the Bible tells us that the Lord will not give us something that is too big for us to handle. Just like in Hebrews 13:5, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”" The Lord might lead you to this place in the wilderness, but He is not going to leave you there.

What happens if you choose to embrace it:

• you begin to find satisfaction in Christ
• joy
• learn and grow through your experience
• find hope
• able to help others

What happens if you choose to run:

• miserable
• depression (possible)
• miss out on a blessing
• lose hope
• get off the path created for you by God

Questions:

1. Have you been in the wilderness before? Are you there now?

2. What lessons did God teach you while you were there?

3. How do you think that will help you to reach other people.

Check out this article about Christian Wilderness too…http://www.christian-faith.com/forjesus/wilderness-experience.