FAITH

FAITH

One cannot talk about the wilderness without thinking about faith. The Children of Israel had a failure of faith. That failure caused them to stay in the wilderness for another forty years so that none of the original group was able to enter the Promised Land. What is the point of faith? With out suffering there would be no need for faith. If everything made sense we believe we would have no need for faith.

We often want to make sense of suffering. It is the existential “Why am I going through this?” We are deluded in thinking that to know why our suffering would in some manner ease. We look for meaning in the suffering of ourselves or loved ones. That is the “Why?” An accident that kills a family or a 9/11 which is a national tragedy demonstrates to us our mortality. When innocent person is killed or dies with a painful illness we want to make sense of that suffering. Suffering seems meaningless to us in that we want our lives to have value meaning and purpose. Therefore we seek to find meaning suffering and death as well as life. In grief then one most often ask God or the Preacher or their own heart “Why did this happen?”

All of our logical and rational thinking never quite satisfies to answer such existential questions. The crying out “Oh why?” is not a rational question but a heart felt pray like (and often really a prayer) utterance that calls for a different sort of answer. No set of facts, enough information, theoretical propositions, or degrees of knowledge, or great ideas can answer to the “why’ of pain and suffering. It is the Job moment of saying “I wish I had never been I born?” Job 3:1-3.

It is in faith that we find the answers to the really great “Whys” of life... Jesus said to the disciples in the fishing boat after he had stilled the storm. “Where is your faith?”

Hebrew 11:1 Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. The Scripture tells the way to accept Jesus is through faith. That is because again the rational understanding as important as it is not able to understand what is beyond understanding. It is through faith that we accept and understand Jesus. It is through faith that we can find meaning in the incomprehensible such as suffering.

Wilderness II

WILDERNESS II

There are times when one never leaves the wilderness. The children of Israel were in the wilderness wondering for forty years with Moses. None of them were allowed to enter the Promised Land. They had been delivered form Egyptian bondage. They saw God work in really powerful miracles. They crossed the Red Sea on dry land and were delivered from the “hand of Pharaoh”. Just a few months after they were delivered from Egypt they were at the south end of the area of the Promised Land. Twelve spies were sent in to the land to recon the territory. Only Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, gave a favorable report the other ten told about how hard the task would be and that the enemy was to great. In the end however their faith failed and they were condemned to stay in the wilderness. Forty years later their children were allowed to go into the land. The entire original group died in the wilderness.

The failure of faith and the desire for what is familiar has caused many folks to stay in the wilderness of their lives. It has caused many to fail to follow the will of God. I have seen a lot of individuals who never came out of the wilderness of alcohol or drug use because of fear of feelings, low self worth. There are some wildernesses that seem to have no way out. Wildernesses of illness, financial ruin, often trap people for years with no redemption or deliverance. They never see God in these places and circumstances. They pass the “burning bushes” and never hear the voice of God.

The other side of the coin is that one can be in a promised land and feel they are in a wilderness. The prodigal son was one of those. He had to leave his father’s home and going to the wilderness of self will and pleasure to see that home was a promised land.

I hope you do not become trapped in your wilderness look for the face of God in that place. Where ever you find the face of God is place to begin a true spiritual journey.