The wildernessThe

Lost in the wilderness! A fear of any backpacker is to get lost in the wilderness. A very real fear depending on how you are equipped and which wilderness you are lost in.  Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Most of us are urban or suburban and the idea of even being in the wilderness is disconcerting if not down right terrifying.

The college I teach at is located in a rather rural area of East Texas. The two nearest towns are about 1500 people each. The college sits on 1000 acres, of which only about 250 acres are actually developed and have buildings and such. On our property is a very nice nature trail, along with oil and gas wells (welcome to Texas) and that trail is 99.9% devoid of human traffic. Our urban students are frightened to go back there. To them, that is the wilderness, even with a clearly marked trail. This is a world they will never know and that is sad to me.

In contrast, the Abbey of Gethsemani, in the knobs of Kentucky, sits on 2,500 acres and it invites every retreatant and every monk to explore the wilderness. Most of the visitors there are urban or suburban dwellers, so why the difference? It is because of the context and expectations. At the Abbey, one goes there to get away, to explore the solitude of that wilderness and the wilderness that is our very soul. At the college, students believe they are there for much more than an education and so they have no time for exploring the wilderness, especially the one in their soul. What makes me even sadder is that they are terrified of silence and of themselves.

How sad, that the four years that could be used to discover vocation and calling are not seen as that at all. They are four years to get your “union card” and go do a job for the rest of your life. A very expensive “union card” to say the least.  And the students do not want to change, don’t expect to change and resist being changed. And yet, if you leave college just like you came to college, both the school and the student have failed miserably.

Jesus went to the wilderness all of the time. Sent the disciples there as well. It was not for punishment, it was for refreshment. It was to pray and be in relationship with the Creator of the Universe. It was to “get your head straight” so to speak. Well, actually your heart, but you get it. Jesus started his ministry with forty days in the wilderness. It was not there that he was tempted, it was after he left the wilderness and was coming back to his ministry that the temptations arose. Like all of us, it isn’t when we are in prayer that we are tempted, it is when we have to return to the world that it gets difficult to remember that we are “bought with a price”.

Wandering in the wilderness is a good thing, not a bad thing. It is where we go to be honest with ourselves, to love God, and to refresh our very souls. No, you don’t need a forest or acres of land. The wilderness is within. There you are free to be who you were created to be. There you are forgiven. There you are deeply loved and there you get to love God deeply. So, let’s go to the wilderness and Love. Does it shock you to realize that the Eternal God not only wants to meet you there but it makes God happy!!!! Imagine that, God is always happy to see you and walk with you in the Wilderness of your very soul.

TMM

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