The Wilderness
No one ever asks for this.
Sometimes we find ourselves in places we don’t want to be, places that are barren, lonely, and disorienting. These are often called wilderness seasons. These deserts and wild places often feel as if they have no end, and we wonder if we’re bound to wander there forever.
God’s people have frequently found themselves in the midst of both literal and figurative wildernesses, and God has used them to shape and teach and remind in powerful ways.
He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness; he encircled him, he cared for him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.
Deuteronomy 32:10
This prayer, a conversation between a wanderer and God, asks whether the wilderness might hold a promise for each of us, the promise that when everything else is stripped away, what’s most important remains.