In the Wilderness

It has been quite a start. The car accident has made my life pretty difficult these last couple of weeks. Not only am I putting a lot of pressure on my boss and host-family to drive me around town, I became faced with the decision of possibly letting go of my pride and joy mustang. I am going to keep for anyone who would worry. But I have been thinking about what this last year has been like for me and I started to get down. It has been rough and it seems like every time things are looking up, another obsticle comes in my way and I can't seem to make it to my metaphorical "Promised Land."
I've been thinking about the wilderness. When Israel needed a harsh lesson on how to live with and trust God, he sends them to wander in the wilderness. When Jesus needed his lesson on how to trust God, he sent him into the wilderness. While my problems hardly compare to Israel's or Jesus, I am faced with seeing that maybe I have been led to a wilderness of my own.
John Siburt, the preacher here at RE, gave a sermon yesterday from Luke about being persistent in prayer. He made the statement, "If you bother God, he'll bother you." I like that. We seem to spend a lot of time asking for things whether it be forgiveness or strength or some other kind of help from God. I think God acknowledges these prayers. But at the same time, maybe he shows us where we need to be involved in the process. Can we really expect to sit back and do nothing while God does all the work? Perhaps when we say, "God, give me strength," he responds, "Here's how you can strengthen yourself."
The wilderness is the place for learning a lesson. I don't know what lesson I need to learn, but as I pray for trust in God, it seems that his response is simply, "Trust me." It is not the easiest way to learn lessons, but I think Michael Card is right in saying that "the windy winter wilderness can blow the self away." Only once the self is gone and one is completely lost in the wilderness can one really be found by God.

Shalom