In the wilderness

 And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. [Jesus] was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him. (Mark 1:12-13)

It’s been nearly year now that we have wandered in this COVID wilderness, little knowing when or how this will all end. I am not going to suggest that the Spirit of God has led us into this place, but the Spirit has a purpose for us in every wilderness whether we heed it or not.

Biblically, the wilderness was the desert, a barren, waterless waste beyond human control where God shaped the souls of those intended for great and holy purpose. They were driven out there—Moses, Elijah, Jesus—as if they had no real choice in the matter, to be stripped bare and learn the meaning of faith.

The wilderness was a place where faith and despair, service and selfishness battled for their souls. And it’s still true. Our souls, the tenor of our hearts is in play, every day and perhaps especially so in the age of COVID and political turmoil.

Our wilderness confronts us with our need to live in greater harmony with the wild beast of nature. It strips us of the illusion of independence, revealing that we are dependent on angels of mercy who appear in God’s time to nurture and save life from destruction.

Spiritually, the wildernesses confronts us with the question of whether we have any faith that there is an ultimate goodness and grace at work in our existence or whether we all must go it alone.

In the wilderness, we learn to live with patience and trust or we go mad with worry and greed trying to secure our lives against a world deemed dangerous and uncaring. We learn to love and embrace life in all its inscrutable unpredictability, or we become prisoners to fears of whatever is hidden in the shadows we cannot see.

Even without COVID, life can seem a wilderness where the sheer uncertainties of existence test our hearts, tempting us to anger or despair or greed or cynicism or futile attempts to secure ourselves at others expense.

But if the wilderness threatens, it is also the best place, the very best place one can learn to love and to trust there is a Love who inhabits every wilderness.

That’s what Jesus and all those others discovered out there, and it’s still true.

Pr. David L. Miller