Thursday, February 23, 2012

The Wilderness


As part of my daily writing practice for Lent, I decided it was finally time to tackle Sunday's sermon!  It's been ruminating in my mind for weeks, but there's something a little intimidating about sitting down to capture it on a blank page.  Thus, I've begun a habit of procrastination.  So here's my attempt to counteract that through the discipline of regular writing and posting, for accountability's sake.  So here's a sample of my work in progress:

Have you been to the wilderness?  I don’t mean in a literal sense, although perhaps you’ve walked through a forest or spent some time in the desert and felt just a little smaller because of the vastness surrounding you.  The wilderness I’m speaking of is of the metaphorical variety…those moments in your journey where you’ve just felt lost and unsure of your next step.  The wilderness is barren, like a blank page awaiting words.  It is silent, quiet enough to hear your inner turmoil and feel your beating heart.  There are all manners of wild beasts, but the scariest of all is your own doubt and the nagging fear that you will never escape into the Promised Land.  The temptations are many…for food and water, for power, for fame, for something, anything, to anesthetize the worry and the constant second-guessing, the ever-present self-doubts.  The wilderness finds us alone and lonely, regardless of the crowds that surround us; they may be, in fact, our biggest struggle.  This arid desert provokes our fight to find ourselves and not lose our essence in the demands to conform and the desires to be accepted.  It is a time of testing and a period of being confronted with our shameful weaknesses, and yet, if we persevere, it is a journey that will ultimately define our strength.

Where have been your wilderness places?



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