Tag: desert springs

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By a Desert Spring

“The Messenger of the Lord found her

 by a spring in the desert,

 the spring on the way to Shur.”  

Genesis 16:7

She was a slave.  Her family, home, and former life was far, far away…in another country.  She was pregnant, mistreated by the wife of the father of her child, and now utterly alone in this harsh desert.  No shelter.  No man to protect her from the many, many dangers in the desert.  A woman without the protection of a man was doomed.  It would be a slow death, surely.  But most excruciatingly painful of all would be to lose the baby she carried.  She would never see his face or hold him.  There was nothing she could do.

Springs in a desert are well-known to all the people of that region.  It was a matter of life or death to know where to find a spring.  She was there, the only place of any hope for her.  But water alone was not enough to keep her alive.  It would merely prolong death.

Her despair must have been unfathomable.  Her story had been one of being “used”…first as a slave with no rights, taken from her home and family.  She had to learn a new language, new culture, new rules and expectations, with strangers now deciding everything concerning her life.  Everything of her former life was gone.   She had to survive an entirely new life, not by her own choice.  That’s what slaves do.  They are “used.”  Eventually she was “used” in the ultimate way…with her own body and deepest intimate part of her heart.

Now, their lives would end together, she and her unborn, only child. . . alone.

But God saw.  He knew. He loved and cared in a deeply personal way for this young slave woman at the little spring, waiting to die.  He had a Plan.

And for the first of only two times in Bible history, God’s Messenger came to a simple young woman, and called her by name.  He then went on to tell her that she would give birth to a son.  He even described what her child would be like.  And God’s own Messenger named this son she carried, “Ishma-el…which means ‘God hears.’”  Every time she would say her son’s name for the rest of her life, it would be a reminder of the God Who Hears….her!

Then, this foreigner, a slave, a girl, so “unqualified” to be having such a conversation with God’s own Messenger, named Him: “Lahai Roi, meaning: The God Who Watches Over Me.”

When we are in those “desert places” in life, no matter how deeply we are feeling alone, forgotten, rejected, or hopeless, thinking that life is over, God isthere.  The “little spring” to which we cling as our hope slips away is not the end of the story.  God Himself “hears”…it’s Who He Is. And in the most hopeless times in life, we can hold on to Who He Is: “The God Who Watches Over Me,” even in our most desperate, hopeless desert moments.

 

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All That Night

“All that night

the Lord drove the sea back.”

Exodus 14:21

God’s desert refugees were running for their lives.   Behind them in traumatizing, deadly pursuit was the most powerful army in the world.  Ahead of them was the Sea.  Men, women, children, grandparents, the sick, elderly, newborn and soon-to-be born babies. The terror and chaos had to have been unimaginable.  Death was in hot pursuit behind them . . . no safety nor “home” lay ahead.   Well over a million traumatized slaves. . . now refugees. But there was no refuge for them. Death loomed . . . at their backs and in their faces.  In the darkness, when terror and danger was all around them.

BUT GOD WAS THERE, saying “Go . . .”   Go to your new life . . . your new home . . . your new freedom . . .   I Am here.  I Am making a way for you.  It’s scary, it’s not easy.  One foot in front of the other.    I Am right here, making the Way for you!

 Nighttime seems to hold far more fear.  Darkness surrounds us, and fears grow.  We cannot see.  Our human frailty and vulnerability becomes far more tangible.  We long for the light.

God’s people…His refugees, saw the turbulent sea open before them, and the command came to step into that unimaginable journey in the darkness of night.  There was really no other option…theyhad to go.  

God was there. In the darkness.  He, Who had opened the sea and created the path to the other side, was there.  “All the night” . . . holding the sea back from utterly wiping out the people He had chosen to carry His Story to the world.  He had created the way for them, and He was holding the sea back.  No movie creation of man could begin to depict that scene.  We can only try to imagine it.  As His dearly loved people stepped onto the bottom of the sea, with the waters of that sea towering above them. . . in the darkness of that long, long night.   No words were necessary as He “held the sea back…all that night.”  They just needed to keep putting one foot in front of the other….He was doing all the rest.

I know He continues to “drive the sea back” throughout the nights of our souls.  May we continue to put one foot in front of the other on the Path He has made for each of us.

 

 

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Kings

“Greatness, power, splendor, glory, and majesty are Yours, Lord,

    because everything in heaven and on earth is Yours.

        The kingdom is Yours, Lord,

            and You are honored as head of all things.”

I Chronicles 29:11

For all of his human frailties, David had gotten so many things right.  He was in a time of great transition, handing-off the leadership of the kingdom he had led for so long to his son Solomon.  David had asked his nation to help to build the “Palace of God”….the Temple.   The people had responded with overwhelming generosity.  In front of his people, King David erupted in proclaiming these words to hisKing.  His words were words reserved for greatest honor for worthy kings of nations. For King David to stand before his nation and proclaim these words to His King must have been deeply impacting on all of his people.  They came from his heart. . . from the depth of his soul.

Experiencing a top leader putting things in proper perspective for those he/she leads has profound impact.  To live out that perspective gives substance to the words.  David, the shepherd King,  was a lifelong follower of God.  His God and his nation were profoundly intertwined.  David took that moment in time, when all eyes were on him, to put the focus of his people on his God…the true King.

Human “kings” fail, unfortunately, far more often than they succeed in keeping true perspectives of where God’s place is in the nations they lead.  Top leadership positions are fraught with the perspective struggles….whether top leaders in government, the corporate world, or the faith world.

In my “other world” of the desert, I have seen the effects of a king who has been far more absorbed in building his own personal “kingdom” than in pointing his people to God.  It has devastating effects that can go on for decades…generations.   But I have also seen a top national leader love his people, humbly and secretly blessing widows and desperate situations. Both have profound impact on their people.  

May we daily place our lives and hearts under the perfect sovereignty of our King of all kings. . . especially as leaders.  May they see Godly leaders, especially in their greatest earthly moments, direct all honor and praise to the King under whose perfectleadership we serve.   And may we focus our attention and obedience on our King as we walk this earth.

 

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It’s About Time

“Before the mountains were born,

before You gave birth to the earth and the world,

You were God.

 You are God from everlasting to everlasting.

Indeed, in Your sight a thousand years are like a single day,

 like yesterday—already past—

 like an hour in the night.”  

Psalm 90:2,4

As a human creature on this earth, it is impossible for me to wrap my mind around this passage. My life is daily dictated by “time.” And the limitations and definitions of “time” that we follow seem to have no similar limitations to God.  He set Time for us, as part of Creation.  He didn’t need it.  We did.  God’s perspective of Time is far beyond what I can grasp.  Yet, my life is deeply enmeshed in earth’s Time.

This was never so clear to me until my life collided with my Desert people.  Nothingran in accordance to my understanding of Time.  Rarely did I see anyone with a wristwatch (yes, this was before cellphones and all the time-related apps in them).  In fact, by my second trip I began taking off my watch while on the last plane.  One less item that only caused frustration! 

After many trips there, I began to realize how much less frustration the people experienced, even though they were living in an extremely harsh and tragic situation.  There was a natural flow to daily life.  They all moved in a very relaxed way through their days.  Life would unfold as it would, without all the frustrations and demands normally placed on other people or themselves.  Over time, I came to see that the things that many of my well thought out plans and agenda were really outside of my control anyway.  Those things that were in God’s Plans would either take place as I had hoped, or would come to pass in the future.  It required much more trust of Him on my part to intentionally put it all into His Hands and be patient.   So many times, whatever He orchestrated  was far better than what I had planned.

How often do we try to hold God to the system of Time by which we live?   We assume that He follows the time limitations and expectations that we follow on this planet.  He does not.  This reality requires far more trust on our part . . . trust of Him and all that He is doing.  We see a small dot of the eternal Picture He is painting.

Once in a while we catch a tiny glimpse, and we are in awe.

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Desert Song

“Spring up, O well!

Sing about it.”

Numbers 21:17

God’s people had been going through a horrible time!  Slaves of Egypt for hundreds of years, running through the desert andthe Red Sea from Pharoah’s army, with the wall of the sea looming all along their panicked flight. . . then into another desert.   They had been bitten by snakes, struck with plague, learning how to follow leaders who didn’t know where they were going.  Frustration, hunger, running for their lives with children, animals, elderly, and sick people. They’d seen people swallowed up by the earth, being led through the days by a cloud…and the most awesome “nightlight” of fire. All through desert. No convenient natural water sources.  Always on the move, sleeping in temporary shelters, days..weeks…months….eventually 40 years. Including the hundreds of years as slaves in Egypt, this has to be the most horrendous refugee situation in history.

But all the while, God continued to be with them, tolerating their disobedience, bad attitudes, and complaints. They’d lost a lot of ground in Egypt.  He always gave them another chance. . . through miracles He orchestrated. They’d learned so much about Who God Is through that journey.

Now they were on the move again.  God had allowed poisonous snakes to bite His complaining people.  But He also provided a remedy:  Moses’ bronze snake on a pole.  They only had to look at it to live.

Still in the desert, they arrived at a well.  God told Moses, “Gather the people, andI will give them water.” (Num.21:16-18)

And God’s people sang this song,

  “Make your water spring up!

                                                            Sing to the well,

                                                            The well dug by princes

                                                            Dug out by the nobles of the people

                                                            With their scepters and staffs.”

Did those past Princes, using their scepters, know that they were digging a well for God’s refugee People?   Did those Nobles of the past, using their shepherd’s staffs, realize that they were digging a well that would be used by God to bless His people, led by a Shepherd who had been trained to be a Pharoah?  Did they know that God had prepared it long ago to keep them alive?

God knew exactly what was coming in the future.  He knew that His beloved people would pass through that desert place in desperate need of water.  He had provided long before their need passed that way.

We do not know what will come tomorrow in our lives.  Perhaps we would not even what to know.  We do not know how things we do today will affect our tomorrow…or the tomorrow’s of others.  But God knows. . . exactly.  And His Plans of how He will use those human efforts for His Purposes are already reality in His Mind.  Nothing escapes Him.

We can hold tightly to the Truth that He can use anything for our good.  It’s our job to hold tightly to His Hand as He continues to bring into existence the proof of His unfailing Love and Purposes for us.

Unlikely people . . . unlikely circumstances . . . unimagined tragedy may invade our lives.  Yet, whether we truly believe it or not, He’s got this!     And we can join that ancient song of Hope and Truth:   “Spring up, O Well!”

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Scary Paths

“The Lord Almighty is my strength.

He makes my feet like those of a deer.

He makes me walk on the mountains.

 For the choir director; on stringed instruments.” 

Hab.3:19

There is a lot of desert in the Land that God gave to His people.  There are also mountains.  When I read this verse, I think of a particular oasis in the desert of Israel, the place where David and Saul had their famous shouting match. There is a waterfall where waters from the heights of Jerusalem, having traveled underground, spill out into this mountain oasis…utterly beautiful in its contrast to the surrounding desert.

As our group begins to walk the long path to the waterfall, we move higher and higher. The rocky path narrows and becomes more challenging.  By the time we reach the sparkling waters flowing from Jerusalem gushing out of the rock, its contrast to the rocky desert surroundings are a pure delight. Many walk right into the sparkling, refreshing water.

But along the way, there are often gazelles (small, mountain deer) perched on rocky ledges, watching our human struggles to move along the mountain paths below them.  They easily bound up the side of the cliffs in ways we could never maneuver.  And they watch us struggle, panting as we go, clinging to any rocky outcrop along the way.

Part of the wonder of watching these deer move along the steep cliffs is not only the ease with which they climb, but the grace with which they move.  Effortless.  Sure-footed. Natural.  Fearlessly.  Like a beautiful song.

David, in this desert oasis, watched a similar scene often each day.  He had been running and hiding for his life. Seeing these fleet-footed deer easily maneuvering terrain that could surely lead to a man’s death, David could relate.  Surrounded by the harsh desert and the steep, rocky paths along the exposed mountain wall, David saw himself being strengthened and motivated to stand firmly on his Rock of Salvation.

As I move through the steep, rocky paths of life, I want to have such a confidence in God’s constant Presence and Guidance in my life.  I don’t want to be clinging to a safe spot, white-knuckled and stuck.  I want to move forward gracefully and fluidly, knowing I was made for this Journey, and this Journey was made for me. . . like the deer on the cliffs.  I want my life to be a song that others can join in on the words and melody.  It’s a simple song, sweet and clear, that David gave us.  But its meaning and truth continues through the ages.

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Walking Before God

“Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old,

the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him,

‘I am God Almighty;

Walk before Me,

and be blameless.’”

Gen. 17:1

Abram had lived for 99 years walking his own path in life.  What an interruption….disruption….this Divine Encounter must have been for him.  And coming from an Entity he knew nothing about, this is one of the most history-making experiences recorded in the Bible.  He was a successful desert man.  A shepherd, with a lot of animals, property and history.

But he had never encountered GOD.  His world was one of idols and all the godless activities that were part of that picture.  Then came his Divine Interruption.  Simple. Clear.  But utterly Life-changing.  History-changing.  History-making.

God makes an extremely brief introduction identifying Himself as El-Shaddai (All-powerful; All-mighty….far surpassing any of the gods in Abram’s world.)  He then establishes the new Path, the new Life, to which He was calling Abram.

No explanation.  No details.  No organizational blueprints.

“Walk before Me…”

Walk:  Put one foot in front of the other.  Don’t run.  Don’t plant yourself in the sand.  Move forward.

Before Me:  God had His Eye on him.  He kept Abram in His Sight.  God didn’t put Abram behind Him, where he might fall unnoticed or get off-track. God was trusting him enough to walk ahead of Him, but His Eye was always on him.  God had Abram’s back.  “Walk”….don’t run.  Don’t stand still.  Move forward, with the confidence that God was there, covering his most vulnerable position – behind him.

Be blameless:   The most challenging, yet most crucial responsibility to which God was calling Abram.  There were no 10 Commandments yet.  Abram was stepping into an utterly unknown experience of walking with God.  Sin and disobedience was a way of life since the time of Adam.  But God was calling him to a life that would have to be far above that of his world. Blame is a very human reality. Abram’s life would have to be one that was blameless in the eyes of the world around him.

May we, the sons and daughters of Abraham, follow God’s clear, simple instruction to him knowing that our Father walks with us.

 

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What Are You Thinking About?

“Take no thought for your life,

What you will eat,

Or what you will drink;

Nor yet for your body what you shall put on.”

Mtt. 6:25 

I have spent SO much time packing clothes for my trips, trying to project what weather, circumstances, activates, and days for which I will need to be prepared.  I consider a lot of “what if’s” and try to plan for the unexpected.  In reality, I often come back home having worn about half of what I had packed.  And I have used but a handful of the products and materials I have brought.  I return home with new aches and pains from dragging all my “preparations” through airports, staircases, and vehicles.

“Taking thought” requires a lot of time, energy, and resources.

I watch my desert family and see the simplicity of the amount of “stuff” in their homes.  For my family there, one shopping bag per child holds most of their clothes.   All of their collective “products” could fit in a shoe box.  Life is far from simple in their refugee conditions, but what they wear and how they look is not high on the priority list.

Jesus had been addressing the practical needs and attitudes of His followers.  Many, many were beginning to follow Him.  They found Him exciting. . . different . . . authentic.  Curious, they wanted to hear what profound things He had to say.  But Jesus brought it down to a very practical level.  He addressed the common, everyday, practical activities and values of the people in that culture.  He laid it out in everyday language and everyday life.

But first, He lived it.

Jesus turned their values upside-down.

Jesus did not just talk about letting go of the values and “stuff” of the world He stepped into . . . He lived it.   Modeled it.  He shook it up, not only with His Words, but with His Life.  His ministry was face-to-face, heart-to-heart.  His example was purposeful.

Was it only for that time and place?   Or are His Words and Life for All Time . . . for us now?

Yes, He challenged heart values.  But those values show up in our everyday lives.

May we “take thought” for those things that mattered most to the One Whose Name we carry.

 

 

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Impossible Ways

“God’s riches, wisdom, and knowledge are so deep

that it is impossible to explain his decisions

or to understand his ways.” 

Romans 11:33

I think this is a challenging passage for people in the Western world.   We seem to thrive on figuring out anything that comes our way.  We discuss it…analyze it….figure out the why’s, and make plans and decisions so that whatever went wrong will never happen again.  We love to feel safe, secure, well-prepared, and we set up as many plans and strategies as possible so that “it” cannot touch us again.   We love to be in control.

When God first “invited” me to the Sahara Desert to interact with the Saharawi people living in the refugee camps there, I was utterly terrified. I’m sure that I left skid-marks all the way across the Atlantic. Nothing was as I had imagined, and the “mission” to  gather 9 children, get them on a plane, and bring them to the US turned upside-down from the get-go.

The next trip, I had gathered a team and we had all focused on trying to cover every detail so that everything would go as smoothly as possible.  We had a great plan.

Well….. By Day #2 in the desert, I had a clear picture in my mind of handing my pages of plans, strategies and details to God, watching Him patiently look through it, then crumpling it up in His Hand, tossing it over His Shoulder and with a big smile and twinkle in His Eye, saying,  “OK…. now here’s what we’re going to do…”  And I was again flying by the seat of my pants, hanging on for dear life to His Coattails.

The Path God has led me along in these past 20 years would have NEVER, ever, ever been a thought in my own mind.   Certainly not anythingI would have considered, hoped, or wanted to do.  Yet, I wouldn’t change it for anything.  The challenges, the tears, the sense of loneliness, the spiritual warfare at every turn . . . none of that outweighs the depth of joy and awe that I’ve experienced by having a front row seat to watch God’s Spirit, in an impossible place and impossible situation, moving, working, bringing awareness of His Love, and touching..changing hearts and lives for eternity.

His Ways, His Decisions have been SO far beyond what my plans could have done.  More than I could have even imagined.  They have also involved deep pain and loss, also more than I could have imagined. But even in that, His riches, wisdom and love have been deeper still.

And in my heart of hearts, I wouldn’t want it any other way.

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The Right Hand

“…Then He laid His right hand on me

And said,

‘Don’t be afraid! 

I am the first and the last, the living One.

I was dead,

But now I am alive forever.

I have the keys of death and hell.’”

Rev. 1:17-18 

John had been living in a forced exile and was nearing the end of his life when he had this experience with Jesus.  John had knownHim.  He had walkedwith Him.  He had spent yearswith Him, and had shared a close, loving relationship with Jesus in those years.  John had known Him well.

Yet, in his exile, loneliness, and all the memories which he held in his heart, he didn’t recognize this One he loved so much. John hadn’t humanly known Him in his present context.  He was suffering and alone.  John had communicated with God’s Angel before, but this would be different.  (Rev. 1:12-18)

Jesus came.   But not as John had experienced or known Him before.

Jesus’ tender, powerful words to John were unexpected. John was frightened.  It had been a long time since he had experienced any human tenderness . . . perhaps any human interaction at all.  He must have thought that his life was over. Everything revolved around memories . . . the past.

In the desert, my people there have taught me so many things that were not of my experience in the Western world.   There, the “right hand” has significance, on a daily basis.  The right hand is treated differently than the left.  It is the hand that touches another person.  The greeting of a hand-shake, the friendly touch on a shoulder, . . . these touches of affection are done with the right hand. The left hand is used for dirty tasks, and the friendly touch is not done with the left.  Respect is demonstrated by the use of the clean right hand.

The noted detail of Jesus laying His right handon John’s shoulder has meaning.  It silently expresses the touch of a Friend, with tenderness, respect, and affection.  John must have needed that touch.  He had been isolated. . . alone . . .for such a long time.  And Jesus was asking him to write the things He was about to show him.  Things belonging to the future that had not been revealed before.  John would have needed that unspoken reassurance from his dearly loved Friend as he took pen in hand and began to write.

Such kindness, tenderness, and respect Jesus wove into this Divine Encounter.