Manchaca UMC

Lesson 10: Don’t waste the wilderness.  

At the end of my first trip to Israel our leader asked us what had been the most memorable part of our 17 day study tour. Had you asked me that question before the trip, I would have guessed that my answer would have been, “the time in Jerusalem" or “walking where Jesus walked in Galilee.” However, at the end of the trip I surprised myself by answering that the time in the wilderness had been the most meaningful part of the trip. Others surprised me by giving similar testimonies to the power of the desert wilderness experience. On subsequent trips I found that this answer was the top response given at the end of the journey (at a closing communion service held at the Garden tomb - a possible but unlikely site of Jesus’s tomb). So actually I was in the majority in my appreciation of the wilderness. Why was it so powerful and memorable? Was it the lessons about the patriarchs, the Tabernacle, the forty years wandering in the wilderness or shepherding? No. On closer reflection it seems that the isolation, deprivation and challenge of the wilderness were the keys. These factors combined to force us to focus on two essentials. First was a focus on God and our relationship with God. The wilderness provided an environment with few things to distract us from that important focus. The second essential was a focus on community. To get by in the wilderness we had to share water and snacks; help each other climb over rocks and climb up mountains. On one trip my hiking boot blew out on the rocks and someone loaned me a pair of Keen walking shoes in my size to wear on the rest of the trip.

Another way to think of these essentials is to think of them as the Great Commandment - love of God and love of neighbor. Something about wilderness times gives us opportunities to focus on these essentials. Sadly, I think back of how much of my first trip to Israel was wasted as I kept wanting to leave the wilderness to get to Jerusalem and Galilee! At the end I wished that I could go back to the wilderness part of the trip.

Right now we are on a trip through the wilderness of pandemic. We didn’t sign up for this trip. But let’s not waste this precious time. Let us use it to deepen our relationship with God and find ways to stand in community with others, sharing and sacrificing for them. If so, we may look back on 2020 not as a wasted year but as an opportunity when we got to do the things that matter most- love God and others. Then, like that study group in Israel, we will think of our wilderness experience and be grateful.

~David