Thunder in the Desert - Alternate Ending

    I was reading recently about a man that had been lost in the desert alone for nine days. His ordeal was surely one that I cannot imagine. The thirst from not having water to drink would make anyone desperate and willing to drink just about anything in order to stay alive. In his story, life-saving rain came at just the right moments every few days; just enough to keep him alive, when he was too weak to manage for himself. But hours and days came and went, when there was no rain, no deliverance. I'm sure that he thought the end was near many times; that his story in this world had come to a desolate and lonely conclusion, there in the dry and isolated desert.

    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 in the form of illness 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. Our personal deserts of depression or despair, often come into our lives without warning, and can leave us wondering where God is when we obviously need Him the most.

    Imagine yourself in the midst of a quiet, starlit night. Your surroundings are dark, blurred forms and it’s hard to see far from where you are. Your eyes strain to make out definition and shape. It's a dry and lifeless place. What little light there is from the stars is intermittently blocked out by clouds which have no color, only darker shades of grey to black, and in the distance you see the faint flashes of lightning at the horizon. After days in the heat of your dry existence, you long for drops of rain to touch your burned and aching skin, to wet the tip of your tongue if only to cool it for a while. Not only is this the image of a desperate person in a dangerous physical place, but I think it also describes our lives in those times when we find ourselves in our darkest, driest moments. Those times when our spiritual tongues and lips are dried and cracking from the lack of living water.

    (*) When we've gone as far as we can emotionally go, and we are desperate for the relief of compassion, grace, and forgiveness by the understanding of what it is we are going through. This is the training ground that God uses to help us relate to each other, and to give us insight for what others are going through. It’s not to say that you cannot have compassion without experiencing the same tragedies, but our own trials teach us wisdom, either through success or defeat. On occasion, we all learn through failure, what not to do; what it is like to lose a job, have a life-threatening illness, or not be able to pay your bills. Our ability to help others is vastly improved through our own journey’s path. With our experiences and lessons in life, we may be someone else's flashes of lightning, or promise of rain.

When we come out of our desert, we are usually thankful to be rescued, happy and relieved to be back on our feet. When that happens, don’t forget your calling. We are all witnesses of what God has done for us. To be that voice in the wilderness that gives hope when others are lost and thirsty. To tell our story, and relate to a hurting friend or possibly a complete stranger, that there is hope for them right where they are. In John 1: 19-23, the people of Jerusalem asked John who he was, they were perplexed by his teaching and thought he could be a prophet or someone even greater, but John just kept on preaching.. He was a very loud and boisterous personality as we know him. You may not be an outspoken beacon of teaching like John, which is okay. John told them that he was thunder in the desert, that he prepared a way for the coming Messiah. And that is our job as well.

What does it mean to “make a way” when John is responding to the crowd? I believe it means that he was sharing his own experiences and trials with them. That through his life’s up and many downs, he was shining a light on how grace and forgiveness had been poured out on him. I’m sure that with his reported temperament, that he did it in a way that was on fire for the scriptures and prophecies of the Jewish people. With a loud and direct manner about him, he was certainly hard to miss for the theocrats of the day. We each “make a way” using the skills and talents that we are gifted with. Some people write songs, words, and music that inspire emotion and reach out to people in ways that John possibly never could have. There are storytellers, managing leaders, children's workers, greeters at your church, and servers at your favorite restaurant. An almost endless list comes to mind of calling styles that serve as conduits for making the way of the Lord.

While in our desert we learn how to trust God for our next drink of water, our food, and our very lives. Once out of the desert, we can share the hope of being rescued with others that are still in their isolation. But during all of those times, we are called to be God's messengers. We are responsible to share the good news whether we are in times of tragedy, experiencing joy and happiness, or not really sure where we are; God is not a far away ethereal being, only reachable through highly religious and specific rituals of the chosen few. Absolutely not. He is walking the path with you, beside every step. You cannot lose Him or get hidden from His sight. And a simple and soft whisper of His name is all the further you will need to go before He answers. No, He does not reserve His attention and love only for the “worthy”; if that were the case, none of us would ever know of it. It is a gift, as between friends, without strings or entanglements, He gives to every single one of us, the friendly, the mean, the saintly, and the criminal. For all.

The question is, how will you make His way known through your life? He has walked through your desert with you, given you water when you were dry, laughed when you were happy, and cried when you were hurting. Our call to be His messengers isn’t necessarily a call to become a ‘John of the Wilderness’. Your calling may be with your friends and family, to change the destructive course that your parents or grandparents chose. Perhaps you are a teacher or work with children, and maybe you can’t openly share about what God has done in your past, but you can show them through your attitude, the difference you have in your life. Trust me, looking back I can tell you I knew when a teacher or mentor was a Godly person. They were different. Maybe I didn’t realize it at that moment in time, but it made an impact that I always remembered, and admired. You may be a doctor that gives hope and at the same time honors God when something beyond your ability goes right. The truth is that no matter where you are, no matter what you do, God has called you to be his messenger. Pastors are not the only ones called to reach out and minister to people, we all are. Through the way you live your life, and love those around you, the life that you present to others will get their attention. Just as John’s life raised the questions of the leaders in Jerusalem, and compelled them to search him out and ask him what was so different about him and who was he, those around you will notice that you are different than most people that they know. Be diligent. Be ready. Live the best life that you can to acknowledge that you are blessed by God, that He walks with you, and that no matter what isolation or worry comes to you and your world, you will be His voice of thunder in the desert.

Blessings - Randy

John 1:19-23 (msg)

(*) - The following content is an alternate conclusion that differs completely from my previous message entitled, "Thunder in the Desert". 

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)