Lessons from The Desert - I Am

Have you ever actually been in the desert? Which one? For how long? What did it feel like? What do you remember the most?

If you haven’t been in the actual desert, what’s the closest to it that you’ve been?

We often use the desert as a metaphor for a time in our lives when we felt real isolated, when things were not going our way, when we felt removed from God or those around us, or both. Have you had such a desert experience in your life? Can you remember what brought it on? Can you remember how you felt? What brought you out of the desert?

Deserts make us thirsty. We often find when we are facing deserts in our lives that we too are thirsting for something. We find ourselves really parched. Usually we find that we are thirsting for the Sacred, the Holy….we are thirsting for God. Have you ever felt that kind of desert inspired thirst? What brought it on? How long did it last? Did you quench that thirst? If so, how? If not, are you still thirsty? What are you going to do to quench the thirst.

As we said in the message on Sunday, Moses basically got three things from the time he spent in the desert before he visited Pharaoh. (1) God shared with him what God’s plans were for him, (2) God called him by name, (3) God revealed God’s Name (YHWH or Yahweh) to him. When you’ve spent time in the desert, did God use that time to help you grow? How? If you find yourself in the desert in the future, how do you think God will use that time to help you grow?

Craig Banes shares the following in his book entitled, ­Sacred Thirst:

…the most important things to remember about the desert is that God never wants anyone to stay there. There is no easy way out, but one of the worst mistakes we can make is to get used to living in the dry places. The only point of going through the desert is to get to the Promised Land, where we are at home with God. And the only way to enter the land is to realize the thirst we feel is a longing for the sacred. Sacred Thirst, p. 14.

What does this quote mean to you? Do you agree with Barnes?

Why/Why not?