Thunder in the Desert

          Recently, I was reading about a man that had been lost alone in the desert for nine days. His ordeal was surely one that I cannot imagine. The thirst from not having water would make one desperate enough to drink just about anything in order to stay alive. In his story, life saving rain came at just the right moments to keep him alive, when he was too weak to manage for himself. But there were days that came and went, when no rain fell. I'm sure he thought that the end was near many times; that his life's story in this world had come to an end, there in the California desert.
          One of the dictionary's definitions of desert is, 'any place lacking in something'. It sounds so unassuming, yet a place where any and all organisms struggle to survive is not a place to be. Life can be a series of events that range from your happiest day, to being lost in your own desert. Whether it's a desert of failure in school or work, or one of financial ruin. Perhaps the cruelty of human weakness through disease has come to you, or you can't control an addiction that seems to weigh over you like a massive boulder quarried from shame and self-loathing. Each time you see an end to your circumstances and pain, it turns out to be a mirage of lifeless vapor.
          Imagine yourself in the quiet, starlit night of a dry and lifeless place. The sky is intermittent with clouds, and in the distance, you see the faint flashes of lightning at the horizon. The delusion of hope grips your heart again. Days into your ordeal, you are ready to move toward the promise and find out, for certain, if the rain is real or not. After a seemingly eternity of thirst and heat, you long for the drops of wet redemption to touch your burned and aching skin, to wet the tip of your tongue if only to cool it for a while. This is the image of not only a desperate person in a dangerous physical place, but it also describes our lives in those times when we find ourselves in our darkest, driest moments. Those times when our spiritual tongues are dried and cracking from the lack of living water. When we've lost our direction or misplaced our purpose. We wander in our search for what makes us happy, or fulfilled, and yet rarely discover the answer on our own. The desert can be a place of great peril, and even death. So it is spiritually. If we stay in the desolation of a purposeless life, we will eventually die to the ways of good, mercy and hope. The desert will consume us.
          Unlike the man in my story, we do not have to wait and hope that the thunder will bring us spiritual rain. In John 1:19-23, God calls us to be His prelude. To announce that He is coming to a world of desolation and drought with the healing everlasting water. In John 4: 13-14 Jesus tells the woman that His water will forever quench our soul's thirst. In a few short chapters, John tells us that as we wander in our desert we should keep telling others about what God has done in our lives. Even when we are thirsty ourselves, dry and parched, we should point the way to His living water. In fact, I think that we are the most useful to God, when we've come through our own solitary wasteland. When we have seen and felt the sorrow of loosing a loved one, we are ready and trained to help those in need. To come through a life crisis such as the failure of a business, or betrayal of a friend, this is our desolation ordeal, and if we put our faith and resolve in the right place, it makes us a very credible voice to others in similar situations. I'm not saying that you have to die to understand what death means, or that unless you have been divorced, you can't know the feeling of abandonment or failure. Some people are gifted with the ability to empathize with those in need. But for most of us, the experience of life circumstances trains us to know when others truly need our grace and support.
          I believe that the church was called to help fulfill this function, to share with each other's passion and loss, in ways that would strengthen one another. Sadly, many times that seems to be the lacking ingredient as the modern church searches for purpose, instead of hearts. But do not give up on your search for genuine lives being lived with passion and those willing to share what they have experienced and learned from their conflicts. We do not come together to judge or count sins, we come together to find strength, and endurance. Find your place of belonging, where God's message is emanating from hearts full of grace and a natural caring for others, living day to day by His unchanging words and promises.
          If we are to have a chance for others to see our lives as a light of credible understanding, the fact that we have lived the same crisis or tragedy is a big first step. We are to be that thunder in the distance, the hope of good things to come. Seeing our survival, our continued resilience under fire, gives others an example of what may be close at hand for them, if they pursue with diligence the path towards the well of the living water. Our desert is not one of complete desolation, even though many times it does feel that way. There are many today on this journey with us, as well as those who came before and will come after, and we all look to each other for that promise. That hope of thunder in the desert.

John 1:19-23 / John 4: 13-14 (msg)

Our Last Day

Much has been written and said about what we would think of or do, if we knew today was our last day. Life is done, the great beyond begins tomorrow. Period. Would you think first of your children and their lives? Maybe you would write a quick letter to them, telling them that you love them, and impart some sort of lasting wisdom through your final words. For most of us I think, the thought of our last day is not one filled with joy, and suspenseful excitement. We fear those notions of finality. Of taking that next step on our own, where no one can come to our aide, or hold our hand. Although I know, and you should too, that Jesus came into this world so that the exact moment we fear the most, would be His best and most welcome wonder. We will not go into the future life, away from this world of pain and disappointment, alone. The grace and love of Jesus Christ will go with us. Comforting and contagiously helping us know that we are not unattended, but surrounded by family. The heavenly family.

          With that fear settled, and looking back at that last day of your life, what would you do? Who would you talk too or council? I know my own list is long, and probably impractical. Impractical because a day only has twenty four hours in it, and the plans and lists of people and things to see and accomplish would take more time than one twenty-four hour span. Precious time that I wouldn't have left, if it was my last day that is.

Thinking about it, I have come to a simple conclusion. Live every day as if it were your last one. Certainly a cliché, I know, but when I asked you earlier, what you would do, and who you would seek to be with or talk to, you knew as soon as I asked it, that your mind came up with far more things on that kind of list, than you could possibly do in the time given. That it might actually take a lifetime to say and do the things that you felt that you had yet to do. That is absolutely, without a doubt, the correct thinking. It does take a lifetime. You can either make yours a lifetime of blessings and learning from your mistakes, or you can let it weigh you down, repeat wrong after wrong, and leave a life full of regret, loss, and unimaginable sadness. That's really what free will is all about. The freedom to choose right or wrong. But it's more than that. It's also the freedom to do or choose wrong, and then later, choose to make it right, and learn from your experience.

          Even more than choosing to do better, freedom to choose gives us the opportunity to share with others our struggle in things or places where we have been wrong, or perhaps wronged. It allows us to give hope to others and offer them what wisdom that we have learned while we were in that low place. The freedom to choose gives us the chance to experience the greatest blessing in this world that I think there can possibly be. The chance to help someone else that is hurting, or downhearted. To give them a glimpse into what their future could be, by showing them that you have made it past those difficult times. That life can and will get better. Not perfect, but better. You are given the grace of your rescue, to offer the hope of rescue to someone else. This is an experience extremely hard to equal in life.

          In my last day scenario, I see my children grown and strong. Strong in spirit, and in faith. And also in wisdom. The wisdom to see others in need and respond. The righteous intellect of the Samaritan, who gave without wanting anything in return. It is easy to teach your children to be weary of this "evil" world. It's not hard to show them skepticism and have them grow into adults with no respect or morals to bind their thoughts. What is hard, and will be a sign of my success in life, is knowing that my children love God, love others, and live lives worthy of the respect of their peers, with grace, strength, and wisdom.

          Matthew 6:34 says that we should turn our full attention towards what God is doing right now. Don't become worried, or get upset about what may or may not ever come to pass tomorrow or the next day. God is here today, tomorrow and beyond, to help you deal with everything that comes your way, and He'll help you at exactly the right moment.

          That message is repeated in the Bible so many times it isn't hard to find sermon after sermon to substantiate what it says. Do not worry about tomorrow. But for me at least, it just isn't that easy. And what if there wasn't going to be a tomorrow? This seems to be where faith and knowing Jesus personally, fits into the answer column to all of our questions. If we could just know without any doubt, that He was indeed here for our every concern; That He hears our whispering prayers of desperation, and at that moment when this day is your last, He will welcome you with a hug and a warmth that we have only dreamed of in our best of times. Then, at that time, maybe we could know without worry or fear that tomorrow would be fine with or without us. That all of our depression and hiding in dark and quiet spaces would fade away into his presence.

          The reality of all of this is, with our simple acceptance of His gift of forgiveness, and our obedience to do the best that we can to follow Him and His plan for our lives, we open the doorway to the peace and warmth of Heaven's Prince. Though it's hard to wrap our independent human minds around it, God has made a way for us to know Him in a way that can and should, give us the wisdom and the resolve, to trust that when He says He will help us, at just the right moment, He will do what He has promised to do. Realize something for yourself today, each of us has stress and struggle within this world. To each one of us the ability to deal with our hardships comes in different strengths. In other words, what might seem world ending or horrible to you might not seem as bad to someone else. Maybe their struggles look easy to you, you who have never been a day on their path. So most importantly, don't judge or dictate for others what the definition of a crisis is. But offer the hope that comes through knowing Jesus as your best and personal friend.

          On my last day, I hope that I have lived life, like every day mattered. That I didn't waste opportunities to help others when I was called to be there for them. I pray that I have done everything that I can to show my children that faith and family, and the loyalty to it, cannot be over emphasized. That how I lived was my testimony to what and who I believe in. On that day, I want my wife and children to know that they were loved without measure, and my friends to know that they were cherished and enjoyed. You see the list can be quite definable, when your priorities are where God aligns them, and not where our selfish hearts put them. Examining that outcome for myself, I would say that I have some work to do. That I often fall short of living out what I just wrote. Maybe you do too. But God knows our shortcomings. He wants to see us succeed, but He is all too ready to help us up when we fall.

          Maybe today we can all take a step towards the goal of not worrying about something that hasn't yet happened. Taking one step of faith at a time, both you and I, can learn to trust that God does do what He says that He will do. Matthew 6:34 says it; God will help you deal with whatever hard things come to you, when that time comes. Whether it is a school final that we didn't study for, bills that we can't afford, the loss of a job, or the loss of a loved one, He will be there at just the right time, if we trust Him. And know, that the future will still be in His hands, on our last day.

Matthew 6:34 Msg