Last week we looked at what the Lord might be asking us to give up for Lent. This week I want to continue to reflect a bit on this process. Whenever we give something up or have something taken from us (i.e., suffering), I want to suggest that a desert space is created within us. These spaces are dry, arid spaces that make us uncomfortable and thirsty. We respond to these desert spaces in various ways - we might double-down in other areas, trying to reassert a feeling of control; we might throw ourselves into self-indulgence (food, lust, shopping, etc); we might throw ourselves into spiritual practices in a misguided attempt to get God to respond and restore things, or we might lose heart and give in to despair.
Part of the purpose of this season is to intentionally follow our Lord into the desert. I invite you to embrace this process and not run from it. Resist trying to numb the experience. There are only certain things you can learn from the Lord in the desert, where the silence is deafening and the landscape harsh and painful. The desert can become a place where we find out who we really are, and who our God is.
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. (Luke 4:1-2 NIV)
It is possible that there are already places of lack and barrenness in your life and you don’t need to “add” any more. If this is the case for you, don’t feel pressure to start cutting out things (unless the Lord specifically puts his finger on something, then by all means!). Your invitation is to pay attention to the desert spaces you already have and not run from them or try to make them go away.
Take the time to explore your desert spaces -
What does it feel like?
How do you typically respond to it?
How is the Lord inviting you to respond to it in new ways?
What temptations do you face there?
What are you most afraid of?
Talk to the Lord and some safe friends about what you discover.
Desert Places (poem by Robert Frost).
Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast
In a field I looked into going past,
And the ground almost covered smooth in snow,
But a few weeds and stubble showing last.
The woods around it have it--it is theirs.
All animals are smothered in their lairs.
I am too absent-spirited to count;
The loneliness includes me unawares.
And lonely as it is that loneliness
Will be more lonely ere it will be less--
A blanker whiteness of benighted snow
With no expression, nothing to express.
They cannot scare me with their empty spaces
Between stars--on stars where no human race is.
I have it in me so much nearer home
To scare myself with my own desert places.
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