Welcoming Your Wilderness

Wilderness.

What comes to mind?  

A lush jungle?  A barren wasteland?

An exciting adventure?  A terrifying detour?

Exploring and discovering?  Getting lost in the unknown?

Merriam-Webster defines the word wilderness as "a tract or region uncultivated and uninhabited by human beings...an area essentially undisturbed by human activity...an empty or pathless area or region."

Uncultivated.  Uninhabited.  Undisturbed.

Empty.

Know any places like that?

Ever been there?

I'd venture to guess that each one of us has encountered a wilderness of sorts at some point in our lives.  Trekking through uncharted territory, wandering, and wondering if we're going in the right direction.  Feeling like no one else has ever walked the same path.  Quiet.  Alone.

Is the wilderness a welcome place?

Something on the proverbial bucket list?

For most, probably not.

However, as I walk out my own journey and investigate the roads that others before me have traveled, I'm seeing evidence that might suggest otherwise.

Can the uninhabited places actually be inviting?

Is it possible that the pathless region can be steeped in significance?

Could uncultivated areas possibly produce growth?

Conversations about wilderness experiences with people of faith will commonly involve references to the Israelites, God's chosen people, who were forced to wander in the wilderness for 40 years after demonstrating that they were not yet ready to obey God's instructions.  Their Promised Land had to wait - it could only be found on the other side of the wandering.  While the Israelites did not directly choose their wilderness, they did encounter it as a result of their decision-making, and some of our own wilderness experiences can definitely be attributed to similar situations.

A closer look at other Biblical accounts of those who experienced the wilderness is enlightening, though, as it becomes evident that while some chose their wilderness indirectly, some were forced into it by their circumstances, and some entered it completely voluntarily.  Does this mean that not all such journeys hold a negative connotation?  Is the wilderness something to be embraced?

My husband and I experienced our wandering quite unexpectedly, after circumstances caused us to step completely off of the path that we had traveled faithfully and believed that God had designed specifically for our lives.  We did not plan for this detour, and the season that followed can be very accurately described by the same definition of this one word: wilderness.

While we often felt that no other human had walked our path, that the area we traveled was truly uninhabited, and that the quiet emptiness could sometimes be deafening, it is now quite evident that our journey into the wilderness was of great necessity.

It is the seasons of lonely wandering that create the greatest opportunities for discovery.  It is in the silence that our thoughts are allowed to expand.  And it is in the areas of the grandest unknown that we truly seek to know.

The wrestling of the wilderness offered us the chance for unused muscles to awaken, stretch, develop, and strengthen.  And the unquenchable thirst that accompanied our sun-scorched traveling caused our roots to go deeper than ever before in search of life-giving water.

How better to prepare for the potential greatness that lies ahead than with strong, well-developed muscles, and roots that have branched out wide and dug down deep?  What could we want more than to know what we're made of and who we are?  Where else can we find the confidence to chase bravely after wild dreams and jump boldly into uncharted territory?

When you find yourself abandoned like Joseph, conflicted like Moses, exhausted like Elijah, hated like David, or devastated like Job, embrace the opportunity.  Welcome your wilderness.

Or maybe, just maybe, step away from it all - on purpose - like Jesus did, knowing that apart from everything familiar, your Father is fully prepared to equip you with powerful truths and establish unshakeable foundations that will undergird all that is forthcoming and guarantee that you can stand confidently in the face of every challenge and opposition that lies ahead.