Into the Wilderness...Again

Into the Wilderness…Again

One of my favorite quotes comes from author Ray Bradbury in his book Fahrenheit 451. "My grandfather ….hoped that some day our cities would open up more and let the green and the land and the wilderness in more, to remind people that we're allotted a little space on earth and that we survive in that wilderness that can take back what it has given, as easily as blowing it's breath on us or sending the sea to tell us we are not so big."

I remember being young and spending nights in the wilderness, and hating and loving it all at the same time. I was scared as I lay awake staring at the stars, hearing night noises all around and smells that made me feel very alone and very alive. The wilderness was an arena that surrounded me with my smallness in the world. It reminded me that I wasn't so important. It still does.

And yet as a Christian, I know that there is a God who traveled through time and space to be with me in the middle of the wildernesses of life. And sometimes it takes the backcountry experiences to bring me back to my proper size, to realizing that life is really about Him, about His business, about His desires, not mine.

Sometimes people will ask me why I would want to sleep on the ground or walk long distances with a bunch of weight on my back. They struggle understanding why I would choose discomfort. And I try to help them understand that their question is the answer. The reason is that I can choose discomfort. That I realize life is not about me being increasingly more comfortable. We trade up our vehicles to something nicer. We move into a larger home because it is more comfortable. Life begins to be more and more about our own comfort and less and less about being totally sold out to a God who may or may not make us more comfortable. The wilderness reminds me that God is supreme, not my level of satisfaction.

Lately in my journey, God has taken me on a road of letting go, surrendering, releasing almost everything in my life. It's almost like He has been saying "Let go and let me teach you how to travel light". But I know from years of backpacking that traveling light means accepting increasing levels of discomfort. And the truth be known, I want, in the deepest recesses of my soul, to be comfortable, more than I want to follow a God who calls me into discomfort.

So I guess I am heading into the wilderness… again.

© 2007 Mike & Laura Ege, Outside Edge Coaching