Are you in the Wilderness or the Workshop?

 

   I'm pretty harsh on the ancient Hebrews, post Red Sea experience.
   They have a first person encounter with a miracle that defies natural laws and effectively wipes out their opposition (See Exodus 14), yet as soon as the desert comes so does disbelief. 
    Oh ye of little faith.

    I've had my own desert experience this year--literally. I travelled to the United Arab Emirates and had my eyes opened to a beautiful menegerie of cultures. That desert land was rich with promise, community, purpose and vision. I felt more alive in 115 degrees than I have anywhere else.

   Then came a different type of desert experience.

   The kind where you wake up in the morning devoid of purpose. Where reformed workaholics like myself cling to the schedule, filling up their lives so they know who they are by what they do. 
    The funny thing is, this was in the wake of a year of Red Sea miracles.

    From August 2013 to May 2014 I attended a discipleship school called Equip at Antioch Community Church in Norman, Oklahoma. It was a leap of faith into the sea of unknown...something I don't do well with as a person who struggles with needing control.
   But oh does God act for those who wait for Him (See Isaiah 64:4)
   I prayed, Lord, I need a home.
   A friend approached me and asked if I needed a place to stay.
   I prayed,  Lord, I need a job.
   Another friend asked me if I was job searching and offered me a position 10 minutes from where I lived.
   I prayed, Lord, I need community.
   This past year I've found a deep well of community and family, hungry for God's purposes.

   I could go on and on with testimony after testimony, but basically I experienced a year of response to an act of faith--God's tangible provision, again and again.

 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him -Hebrews 11:6

   Then I walked out into the desert or as I like to call it, the waiting period.
   This season is something equivalent to standing in line at the DMV. You know someone has your number and you know you have to practice patience, but it never does meet your expected time line. Before you know it your positive attitude is tested and you're tempted to turn into one of those fist-pounding, agitated individuals who is just wondering why everyone seems to have forgotten about you.

   Praise God for grace. Praise God for Holy Spirit encounters.

   I was am that person.

   I came down from the mountaintop experience, ready for my next immediate answer to prayer. Instead I went through four months of unemployment, no secure living situation, slowly watching my savings deplete after months of padding my account.

   I grumbled. I stressed. I squeezed my spiritual stress ball of several note cards of verses over and over again. Recite, remember, repeat...recite, remember, repeat.
   God where are you in my wilderness?

   Then I had one of those gut wrenching moments of Holy Spirit conviction. Oh, you know what I'm talking about. One moment I'm planning my escape from job uncertainty and instability, engaging in a full-frontal attack on a house infested with fleas, and staring at split ends I've been dying to cut but can't afford to and WHAM!
 
   Remember my people in the desert Rachel? They took control to. They made their own god when I seemed absent and forgot who I was, am, and will be. They let go of the promise over their lives...
  What response are you going to have?

   Oh, Lord! What a tender place of conviction. How can I, in the wake of so many instances of God's grace, deny myself the season of growth--of trusting. That's when I realized the desert, as we often call it, is not a season of wilderness but of workmanship. You can't exercise faith without having a period of believing without seeing. (See Hebrews 11:1)

    So I took a step back, shifted my perspective to holy.

   I was blessed with a home for a season of insecurity.
   Thank you Lord for the fleas, that I can grow and learn in a place of love and peace.
   A job came to me before I looked for it.
   Thank you Lord for growth in my field, that I can do what I love and get paid for it, and that I can grow in faith by depending on you financially to provide...because you always do.
   
   When you shift your perspective of your environment, you allow hope to clear your vision.
   So I have healthy respect of the Hebrews now. Insecurity is the food of fear. So let's learn from history and hold fast to the promises, because we serve a God who has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, and who will fulfill His great promises for our lives (See 2 Peter 1:3-4)

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   We can allow the bitter aftertaste of suffering to overwhelm us, or we can have faith that God can use suffering to transform us --Sarah Young

Don't forget to adventure today.
-Ray