Monday, February 04, 2013

The desert is not the danger

Man! I continue to read one thing after another that just seems to meet me "right where I am." I have especially been touched by an online blogger my mother introduced me to: Holly Gerth. Her blog post today was about the Israelites in the desert.

P.S. The Israelites were only supposed to be in the desert for eleven days!

P.S.S. On the other side of the desert was their dream!

We often set out for our journeys with high hopes. I have two friends who are adopting right now. And the road is not moving in the direction they had hoped. It's not moving at the speed it should be. A friend battling an unexpected period of adjustment. A woman facing an illness. A sister experiencing the loss of someone she loved greatly.

As Holly writes, "we set out on our journey with high hopes. Then as the miles go on we begin to feel fear nipping at our heels. We start to question… Is this the way I should be going? Why is this turning out differently than I expected? What if I didn’t hear God right after all?"

Do you have fear right now?

I have fear.

It's hard to admit we have fear. I'm not sure why. We don't want to appear weak maybe?

Bot Holly Gerth went on to say, " With every question the fear gets a bit louder and our confidence a bit lower. If that’s you today, let me lean in and whisper a truth that you must know: There’s always a desert before the dream."

The Israelites faced fear. And they let the fear win and instead spent forty years on an 11 day journey!

What can we learn from those Israelites? We can learn that the desert is not the danger. "The biggest threat is surrendering to fear and letting go of faith.

"So if you find yourself in a desert right now then hold tight to what you know is true and press on, friend. The Promised Land is closer than you think.

And you have everything you need for the journey."

1 comment:

Amy T. S. said...

I think Holley is an IF girl. At least she wrote something for HELD while we were still publishing.