Into the Wilderness

Wilderness.
Google tells us that wilderness is defined as: an uncultivated, uninhabited, and inhospitable region. 
Well, that's not necessarily rolling out the welcome mat now is it?

Despite this unappealing description, so many of us living in the beautiful state of California regularly seek out wilderness; whether it's to host a fun BBQ in Golden Gate Park on a Saturday afternoon, to take the dog for a hike, or to embark on a 30 mile, 4 day backpacking trip in Yosemite (yep, did that!) Wilderness is ultimately inviting, the very fact that it's uncultivated, uninhabited is what lures us in. There's an appetite for the undeveloped, untouched regions of our planet. We wish to experience these spaces as if to experience and unveil the meaning of our own lives.

Thoreau wrote extensively about this: 

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

Wilderness.
That's how I would describe 2013 thus far.
There have been gorges filled with sorrow, waterfalls spraying with joy, and towering trees pointing to a hopeful sky. The year has been a winding path through pristine flowered meadows disrupted by large granite boulders that requires one to grip carefully to scramble over their mass.

Wilderness.
Quiet, calm, beautiful.
Rustic, jagged, crude.

Wilderness: discuss.
Sunday Brian and I were churchin' it up at our amazing San Francisco City Church. Last month the preaching team began a 9-month journey through the biblical story and yesterday's reading came from Exodus 16: 1-18, NRSV. The first three verses in particular stood out to me:

'The whole congregation of the Israelites set out from Elim; and Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The Israelites said to them, 'If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.' 

The Israelites had just fled Egypt and were now in the wilderness with Moses and Aaron, complaining about how back in Egypt they at least had their fill of meat and bread and weren't dying of hunger.

The next verse describes God talking to Moses about how He is going to rain bread from heaven that the people must go out and gather. This is a test to see whether the Israelites will trust Him and follow His instruction or not.

When I first heard this reading, it brought me to a time when this year I found myself complaining to God just like the Israelites, 'if only I was back in a certain place or if only I could go back to a certain time in my life then things would be better, instead of being here in this barren wilderness'.

It is actually in this year of wilderness where I've been learning to trust God.
Don't get me wrong, it hasn't come without my complaints, just as the Israelites wanted their fill of meat and bread, I've been whining about the lack of hot cocoa and s'mores to comfort me during this journey. That's when God pretty much tells me to go out and gather more firewood, which I do so reluctantly.

On Sunday our pastor explained that when we're in the wilderness with God, there will be work to do. That's not to say we earn our way out but rather we process through it. Fortunately, God is our trusty guide. It's certainly not always a walk in the park, as there are days filled with bouldering and wading through murky creeks but over that mountain peak we can be pleasantly surprised by breathtaking views and epic sunsets; signposts that we're headed in the right direction.

There are seasons in life where we voluntarily seek out the uncultivated, uninhabited terrain called wilderness and others where God takes us there kicking and screaming. Either way, going through the wilderness is a process that requires work, trust and listening and God is there every step of the way.