About two months ago, I went on my first really long run since high school. I'm training for a marathon in May, and the day's run was 14 miles. The most I'd ever run at one time in my life was 15... and that was on accident (but that's another story ;). Going in to the run, I was a bit overconfident. Perhaps for those who know me, that's not too difficult to imagine. Unfortunately, this overconfident approach led me to experience the most miserable run ever. EVER. (okay, I might have a tendency to over-exaggerate things sometimes) I have never been so thirsty in my life. My run took me out into the country land away from the city, so there was NO Starbucks I could pop in at. I became so dillusionally thirsty, I even yelled out (more like a whisper from the lack of energy) to a driver passing by holding a drink, "wait! I just want one sip". Pathetic. Eventually I made it through 13 miles and found a park. With a drinking fountain. I have never been so happy. My thirst was real. (oh, and for all my long runs since, I wisely plot courses with several drinking fountains and/or starbucks along the way ;)
This particular run reminds me of walking through life when the "deserts" hit. During these times, I begin to walk through life with shoulders slumped, and thirst unquenched. I desire water or deliverance during this type of season. Thirsting for it like I never have before. I begin to dream of how satisfying to have even one sip of ice-cold water. But in reality, my steps carry on, heat increases, water seems distant and my spirit feels hopeless.
In a desert, not much life is visible. A few plant species and a select array of animals. Apart from that, life appears near nonexistent. Yet desert exists between lush lands. It exists between populated areas and locations of vibrancy and season. It's existence proves that inevitably we will make footprints across deserts to reach promised lands. Lands of life. Instead of being handed the comfortable Four Seasons experience of desert living, we are called to adapt, survive, and count on His sustaining hand. We ask for water, but we're given a daily portion of manna. (Click here to read more on this) No one wants manna in the desert! Water cleanses, refreshes, revives, and brings satisfaction in a hot desert. Manna delivers adequate nutrients, tastelessness, dryness and boring repetition. Day after day, the desert can cause us to resent His manna. I resent the manna. I beg for water, I pray for the new season. A season of bloom, life, and vibrance. He responds with another day in the desert; with manna.
Brothers and sisters, what I'm learning is manna is our daily supplement. A supplement necessary for carrying on for the length we spend walking through the desert. I love how God speaks to us through the Israelites time in the desert for this specific reason. It parallels our life. Similar to walking through the desert of life, we are given exactly what we need when we need it.
Like the Israelites, we hate the desert. But God is a creator. THE creator of all creation. Nothing, not one season or moment of your life, is done without purpose. Even the desert.
Like the Israelites,
.... we wander
.... we get lost
.... we forget
.... we curse
.... we question
.... we make idols
.... we complain
.... we simply WANT deliverance. Let us be done with the desert, please Lord!
Deliverance from the irritable strain of the desert that refine us, and deliverance to the green pastures we believe we deserve. However, it's in the desert where we see we need God. In the desert, we learn He is the provider of ALL things. There was no self-sufficiency for the Israelites during those 40 years. They had to be completely dependent on God: for direction, drink, food, protection and life. It is the safest and most dangerous place to lay footprints. The safest, because we can rely on the daily portion of manna that sustains us through the hours spent stumbling across the barren terrain. The most dangerous because we will never be the same once we reach the other side. God changes us in the desert.
So as I walk through the desert, I ask God for two things: first, to show me how to rejoice in His daily provision of manna; and second to give me greater faith trusting He will bring me to the promised land... "Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert" (Isaiah 43:18,19).
Where there is hopelessness, He will bring forth hope.
Where there is desert, He will create rivers.
Where there is thirst, He will quench.
Where there is hunger, He will provide manna.
The manna He gives will be sustaining grace. Enough to see you through your desert.
He will do what is promised. He will deliver. Have faith, take courage, and trust your Provider.
Lord, may we be a people of faith who walk rejoicing in simple, daily manna... until you bring us to the Promised land.
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