“Oh, how could we ever sing God’s song in this wasteland?” Psalm 137.4
Patty’s letter drifted into my email-box the other day. Her story, lament, and cry of thirst echoed my own journey. I struggled to find the words of response within my own mind, grasping at threads that seemed inadequate to cover the subject at hand. Are we doomed to wonder through the wilderness forever?
The tendency for each of us to fall into a pit of self-pity is too easy. We are only too familiar with the pain and anguish that rests on our souls each day. We find ourselves resting in a pit of despair and sadness that is justified on one hand and irrelevant on the other. Where are the answers to our wilderness journey?
God ordained David King. David then fled for his life to the wilderness. He ran with God for days, weeks, and years. David’s son Solomon grew up in a home with everything money could offer including the best teachers of God. In spite of this, or perhaps because of it, he spent most of his life searching for what God had already given him. Each of us carries their personal hell with them. Pain from hurts inflicted long ago, anguish from lost opportunities, yearnings for something that is yet to be all inflict their daily toll.
The pain is real for everyone. God is in his own wilderness. God yearns for unity with his chosen people yet the time has not come.
I wish I had a roadmap of the wilderness we face. I do not. I do know the destination God has in mind for you and I. Our home is in God, now and always. I see my own cries of agony as the result of turning my face away from God and Her presence. When I look away, the question of how could I ever sing is present reality.
As I turn to God, rest in Her presence, I wonder how I could ever stop worshipping – no matter how tough life might be.
