Print(1) Going & Growing in the Desert
I've been thinking a lot lately about the place of the desert experience in the lives of believers. Some call it the "dark night of the soul". Others don't have a name for it but simply talk about the current sense of distance between themselves and God as compared with what they have known in past times. God seems to have withdrawn His presence from one's life. He who said, "I will never leave you or forsake you" has done exactly that, left us – or so it seems.
The desert experience might last for a couple of days, a few months, maybe a year or more. The usual response to this experience is almost always to see it as a negative thing; an expression of God's displeasure or disapproval. For me, it feels like I've been marginalized; removed from the favour of God until either I "get my act together" or God, for whatever reason, has a change of heart and He once again restores me to a place of favour.
Although it has taken a long time, I have come to see that the desert is not (necessarily) a negative place to be. On the contrary, there can be a degree of spiritual formation and growth that takes place; life changes that can only be learned in the desert. In fact, without such experiences, our lives will lack some dimensions of wisdom and insight that are essential to growing deeper with God.
I'm sensing the need to explore this strange (some would say 'contradictory') relationship between the desert experience and spiritual growth. After all, many of the great biblical characters passed through such times. If it did them good, why would I resist when I find myself in a place of seeming isolation and aloneness.
In the coming days I hope to find my perspective on this matter revised and refined so that I can see the benefits and embrace them rather than see only negatives and thus resist the process and the journey through the desert to a new level of intimacy with the Lord.
