Into the Wilderness

Have you ever felt a longing when you are driving down the road through a wooded area? One that makes you feel called to just get out and explore, hike, or just take a break for a bit?

Man I can say that this happens to me A LOT! There are many times that I'll be driving down to where I conduct business and I will hit an area that is wooded, and I can see the trail heads that lead to unknown destinations. Sometimes I think to myself I should blow off the day, park the truck, and head down one of the trails. Then reality sets in that I don't have the time to do that and in the long run it would cost me whatever money I would make that day.

Has this same sort of scenario happened to you before? What decision did you make? Did you stop the car and explore or did you let work take the precedence?

I feel like every time I do not answer this call into the wilderness I end up missing out on some great adventure, or possibly even a chance to grow closer to God. It seems that so many times we miss an opportunity to just get out and enjoy what God has created, most of our life spent inside a car, building, or other enclosed spaces. We allow the busyness of life to slowly strip away our life, and let's face it, so often it leaves us feeling drained and alone.

Now let me take it a step further and ask this question. Are we called into the wilderness because it gives us such an awesome opportunity to just slow down, focus, and pray so that we can be refilled by God?

Luke 5:15-16 is such an awesome example of this "But despite Jesus' instructions, the report of his power spread even faster, and vast crowds came to hear him preach and to be healed of their diseases. But Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer."  We may not be performing miracles and wonders, but we are living breathing humans who have a reliance on God and our best way to communicate with Him is through prayer and reading His word. I would venture to say that being Jesus was human (and God) his body and mind would grow tired and weary with the daily teaching and healing of people. I am sure there were times that he needed to just get away so he could focus and be refilled by his father.

So what would make us think that we are any different when it comes to the need for time with God? Yes we can attend church and we can attend groups, but many times we need time alone, time that can be used to reflect in the silence that surrounds us. Is it a little strange the first few times you do it? Oh man, yea it can be. Your mind likes to make you think that there are things moving around you, even when they aren't. Your fears for some reason have a way of becoming heightened making you a little more aware of everything going on around you. Yet once the fear calms and you become focused on the beauty that is around you a sense of calm and wonder begins to take over.

One of my all time best memories of this happened some years ago. My best friend and I (along with a couple other men) went backpacking in the second and third recesses in the Sierra Nevadas. For 5 days we would hike to a stopping point, set up camp, fish for our dinner, and then just enjoy the amazingly clear night sky that was above us. One of the days that we were out backpacking we saw that there was a storm headed in so we hunkered down early, which left a lot of "free time". A couple of the guys went out to explore the are that was around us, and my buddy went up to a lake that was just over the next hill. I stayed behind and hung out with the gear, setup my hammock and enjoyed the quiet. I can remember staring up at the clouds above and watching them with the ebb and flow that storm clouds have, thinking to myself how awesome God is that he could create all of this from nothing. I felt tears well up as I began to think of just how small I was, and how I allowed sin to continually rule my life, I felt a calling. Without that time alone I am not sure how long it would have taken for me to hear that calling, and really what saddens me is that it took me so long to begin acting on that calling (nearly 12 years).

I believe that we were made to enjoy God's creation, to spend time out in the wilderness that is around us. To listen without distraction from the outside world. Often we make excuses for why we can't take the little bit of time needed to do it (I know I do). Yet if we would just schedule that time in, make it a priority, and act on it, then I believe that we could and would see massive changes in our view of how we spend our time. We have a need to be filled by God, and our hearts yearn to hear him, even when we have strayed away from Him.

John 7:38 "Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, 'Rivers of living water will flow from his heart'."

We are called to come and drink! Let us head into the wilderness and find time to focus and be refilled by God!