Breezy shade – or – Scorching sun / Rain -or- Drought / Cool grass – or – Hot sand / Butterflies – or – Scorpions / Garden – or – Desert. Given the choice, which one would you choose?
I’ll go with the garden.
In the Bible, the imagery of gardens and deserts provides a huge contrast of settings, themes and spiritual undertones. Think about it. Many great moments in Scripture happen in gardens, right? Creation, the Fall, Jesus’ agony and arrest, and the Resurrection... all take place in a garden. But there are also great moments that happened in deserts: the exodus and exile of Israel, the Ten Commandments, John the Baptists’ preaching of the coming Messiah, and the temptation of Jesus. During the season of Lent (the 40-day span in the Church year that we’re currently in) we are challenged and called out into the desert for a time to reflect on our sins and get closer to God... but do we willingly go?
When I think of the desert a few things come to mind: hot, barren, desolate, miserable, drought, death... and camels. So why is any of this appealing? Why would I want to go to a place like that? Well, for the same reason Jesus did and the same reason the Church calls us out during Lent: purification and preparation for the journey ahead. What I love about the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, his time of action, is that the first place He went after his baptism was to the desert. He could have jumped right into the business of healing and miracles and raising people from the dead, but instead He was led by the Holy Spirit into the desert for 40 days to be tempted by the devil (read about it in Matthew 4:1-11). Crazy, huh?
Most of the time we think that the desert is a dreaded place (think about being “stranded in the desert”). We’d much rather stay in the garden where we can bask in the cool breeze, lounge comfortably in the shade, and enjoy the beauty of the flowers and trees. But if we always remain in the peace and comfort of the garden, we easily forget that the desert is just as necessary in our spiritual journey.
You see, the desert allows us to be stretched and tested in a way that the garden cannot. It takes away all our distractions and leaves us vulnerable. We’re left with nothing but our brokenness and the choices we’ve made. No trees to hide behind. No leaves to cover up with. It’s just you and God. For many of us, the thought of that is very uncomfortable and even scary. We don’t want God that close. We’ve become experts at the “if I don’t think about, it’s not a problem” mentality, and when the areas of our hearts and lives that need the Lord the most are exposed, we quickly try to cover them and run and hide from God.
During Lent this year when you find yourself in the desert, your first instinct, like mine, will most likely be to immediately try to find a way out... but what if this year we let the Lord find us? What if we stopped doing things our way, give up running from God, and let the Lord bring us out of the desert His way? After all, God’s way is always better than ours. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9). Although the Spirit may lead us into the desert, we have the promise that Jesus will never leave us there. “Who is this coming up from the desert leaning on her lover?” (Song of Songs 8:5). Even in the desert we have the hope of the garden. We have the Resurrection. And we have the Good News that Jesus conquered not only the temptations, heartache, and pain of this world, but death itself.
So my prayer for you this Lenten season is that you would let the Spirit lead you out into the desert to face those struggles and temptations with courage, purify your heart, repent of your sins, and let the God of unconditional love find you fully alive and ready to celebrate the Risen Christ this Easter. Blessings on your journey through the desert.
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