The desert is never a place we want to be stuck. There is little to no signs of life and usually no indication it will end any time soon. It is dry.
We are all aware that difficult times come in the spiritual life but we are never prepared when they come. Our experience of God is that He is one who has come to find us. God’s presence is the reassurance that what is written and witnessed in the Bible is in fact true. So why would God leave us? Why would God seem so aloof?
Our first reaction to a dry season is that we must have done something wrong. Maybe God has abandoned us. Maybe our greatest fear of God turning His back on us has come true. Maybe we have just lost our way. Maybe we just haven’t learned what we need to learn yet.
However intense our experience of God leaving us, the reality is that God can be found in the desert. Life can be seen where we didn’t think life could exist.
When everything that is comfortable is taken, what we say “yes” to is important. We can no longer respond to everything that vies for our attention. We cannot meander without clear direction or purpose. Our actions must become purposeful. We can no longer expect that when we decide to turn to God that He will just be there waiting.
In the desert, it is no longer as easy to just connect with God. What we used to rely on in order to feel God’s presence and know His direction no longer work. The very thing we were afraid to notice about ourselves becomes a lot more evident to us. In the desert, we cannot escape the dryness nor can we escape ourselves.
The challenge therefore is to stay true. Will our hearts turn from God in the difficulty? Will will give up on the truths of God that have brought us this far? This becomes the question that will haunt us. How do we find God in the desert? How do we stay true when we cannot find Him?
However, as much as we feel like there is no hope, there are some keys to finding God in the desert experiences of life.
1. Find where you can practically trust God.
It may often feel like God is nowhere to be found. The challenge in the desert is to hold onto hope. The temptation will be to work harder at the spiritual life or to give up. Staying in the place of being open to God and hopeful of His work in our lives is difficult. Therefore, it is important that we are able to depend on God for something specific. In the desert, we come to a place of dependence when we recognize there is nothing in ourselves that can make the spiritual life work. So we need to be specific with the thing in our lives only God can do. We need to give Him an opportunity to be God for us. We need our relationship with God to become our own and we need our hope to be found in Him.
2. Push into community.
Isolation becomes our enemy in the desert. Frankly, we need God to speak through those who know us best. Sometimes the direction we are desiring from God comes from the community we surround ourselves with. When we feel distant from God our community can be our grounding and help us be reassured that we are not alone during this season.
3. Pay attention to your heart.
What comes up internally for us during a dry season is often the very thing God is doing. This seems paradoxical but it is true. As we allow ourselves to be honest with our own experience, we can bring that very thing to God. Dry seasons can frequently tempt us to avoid our experiences or distract ourselves about how painful it is. However, the very thing we are trying to avoid is the thing God is allowing to be revealed so that God can bring life and healing to it.
4. Keep showing up.
When God was everywhere to be found showing up was easy. When God is nowhere to be found, showing up is a matter of discipline. We must continue to engage no matter how difficult it becomes. We must be available for what God is doing in our lives. Showing up can be most excruciating. But as we continue to give ourselves to God’s work in our lives we will begin to see God where we didn’t notice Him before. Our relationship with God turns from what we can get out of the relationship and begins to be about who God is. Through the desert, we begin to notice that the relationship we have always wanted with God begins to be a reality.