a closer walk

a closer walk

A rough path. A seemingly unending desert. No water. Parched. It isn't ugly here; there is a beauty that I just can't put my finger on. I am far too weary and thirsty to see clearly. I wandered away. A mirage. It looked like something else, something I desired. But it was nothing. Smoke and mirrors. Now I am in this desert. Surrounded by miles of sand that batter me when the hot wind blows. It comes at me from all directions so that I can't even open my eyes. Still something resonates within me that this place has value. I am thankful to be in this place. For it is in our thirst that we cry out for water. Here we see our need to be refreshed. It is on the wrong path that we panic and realize that we are lost. In an act of desperation we rend the air with our anxious cries, tearing at the fabric of what we thought was enough, coming to grips with our dissatisfaction. We test Him. Will He listen, will He come, will I be saved?

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.

 Some wandered in desert wastelands,
   finding no way to a city where they could settle.
They were hungry and thirsty,
   and their lives ebbed away.
Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble,
   and he delivered them from their distress. 

 He led them by a straight way
   to a city where they could settle.
Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love
   and his wonderful deeds for mankind,
for he satisfies the thirsty
   and fills the hungry with good things.

Psalm 107:4-9

The beauty in the desert comes from being in a place of seeing. Seeing our need. Seeing our weakness. All that we know, have, thought we were stripped away until the truth is revealed. We are hungry, thirsty creatures who strive to appease these desires with mirages.

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 

John 4:13-14

There is at my fingertips an oasis in this dry land. Picture a dying man struggling to crawl on the hot sand, lips cracked and bleeding from thirst. Yet close by lay an oasis. It is within reach and visible, still he grasps at mirages, mere reflections of beauty, shimmering and dancing before him. Why does he not go where there is true help? Why do I not follow where I know I should go?

 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:1

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:14

Thirsty, hungry, worn out, empty, I have exhausted all other resources and I reach for the Word. My oasis.

Saturate me, Lord, in your Word. Cleanse me in your pools. Quench my thirst with your Living Water so that I may be satisfied and thirst no more.

"The Lord does not give me rules, but He makes His standard very clear. If my relationship to him is that of love, I will do what He says without hesitation. If I hesitate, it is because I love someone I have placed in competition with him, namely, myself. Jesus Christ will not force me to obey Him, but I must. And as soon as I obey him I fulfull my spiritual destiny. My personal life may be crowded with small petty happenings, altogether insignificant. But if I obey Jesus Christ in the seemingly random circumstances of life, they become pinholes through which I see the face of God. Then when I stand face to face with God, I will discover that through my obedience thousands were blessed."

 Oswald Chambers