Waste Places

Desolate.  Arid.  That place where your soul is parched.  You feel the cracks widening across the landscape of your heart.

 

You think you are all alone.  

Forsaken.  

No one understands.  

No one knows how you feel. 

On the outside, you brighten your smile.  You convince yourself and others that you have never been greater than you are presently. 

But you see that haunting plea mirrored in your eyes every morning.  Will someone please enter my desert with me? 

This desert – it breeds despair.  It courts defeat.  

In this desert, the wind of the tempter’s whisper brushes your ear.  

You begin to listen to these whispers.  

And you spiral down into the vortex of lies. 

And the dry cracks are ever widening. 

Dear soul, Jesus knows that desert you are in.  Jesus journeyed in a desert too.  He’s not blinded by your smile.  He hears the unspoken cry of desperation.  He sees the ever-widening cracks spider-webbed across your heart. 

You’re afraid of these arid cracks.  Jesus steps right into them and fills them.  He’s not afraid of your desert.  There - in that desert?  That’s where Jesus thrives. 

Isaiah 51:3  For the Lord comforts Zion; He comforts all her waste places and makes her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song.

Dear one, hear me when I say:  It’s okay if you can’t find joy and gladness right now.  You are not less of a believer if you can’t find your voice of song.

  

Right now?  Just rest.  BE.  Be that waste place that Jesus comforts.  

That’s all that’s required of you. 

That voice?  That song?  It will come.  When?  I wish I could tell you soon but I can’t say.  I don’t know when your desert will become vibrant and lush with joy and gladness.  It may take days, months, maybe even years.

You just be in Jesus and He will take it from there. 

Don’t hinder yourself and God by self-imposed time limits on navigating through this desert.  Whether it is the desert of loss, grief, rejection, depression, doubt, pain, anger, loneliness, uncertainty, maybe just the day-to-day frustrations.

Whatever the name of your desert, my friend, Jesus finds you there.  Other hearts reach out to you there.  

You. Are. Not. Alone.  

We’ve all got our deserts.  

You are understood.  

You are loved.

Now just BE.  

Be redeemed in your waste places. 

Be comforted in your desert.  

Be loved in your desert.  

By Jesus who says, “Be in Me.”

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