Our Wilderness - Devotion from our State Director
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Our Wilderness - Devotion from our State Director
One day Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and John baptized him in the Jordan River. As Jesus came up out of the water, he saw the heavens splitting apart and the Holy Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice from heaven said, “You are my dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy.” The Spirit then compelled Jesus to go into the wilderness, where he was tempted by Satan for forty days. He was out among the wild animals, and angels took care of him. (Mark 1.9-13)
People spending an extended time in the wilderness. This story recurs through the Scriptures in the lives of Hagar, Moses, the Israelites, David, Elijah, John the Baptist and Jesus. In fact, the fourth book of the Bible is literally titled ‘In the Wilderness’ in Hebrew.
Time in the wilderness was often not by their own choosing. For example, Hagar and Elijah were fleeing violence; Jesus was compelled by the Spirit into the desert. In the wilderness, they often experienced uncertainty, hardship and anguish. Hagar was thirst ravaged; Elijah was terrified; and Jesus was starving and spiritually tormented.
But it was in the wilderness, they experienced God’s deliverance and provision, encountered God in a new way. They saw themselves differently and understood their next steps in God’s redemptive activity. Hagar saw ‘the God who sees me’. Moses encountered YHWH, I AM. Elijah experienced God in a still, small voice. Jesus affirmed his own identity as God’s Son. They saw role and their next steps in God’s redemptive activity.
Through their wilderness experience, they drew on spiritual practices that held them and deepened their understanding of God. Moses walked long distances; David wrote poetry; whilst Jesus fasted and reflected on memorised Scripture. Solitude, silently being with God, seemed to be a common practice for their journey through the wilderness.
And here we all are in our own wilderness experience. Personally, nationally, globally. This 6 week shut down in Victoria is like forty days of wilderness and testing. It’s certainly not of our choosing and most people I’ve spoken with – Christian and not Christian alike – are experiencing uncertainty, stress and some anguish. And yet here is an opportunity for us to encounter God in a new way.
Is there a spiritual practice, in the midst of COVID-19 and lockdown, that’s deepening your understanding of God? Re-wiring you? For me, it’s been contemplative prayer, long walks and creatively connecting with my neighbours.
Beth Barnett, an SU person for many decades, writes this:
Forty days… of Stage Four care protocols for one another
forty days… of living out a radical hope that we can save at least some from suffering and death
forty days… of measures to draw us into thinking and acting as a community
forty days… of finding out if we think one another are worth it
forty days… that will be more costly, more difficult, more stressful, more taxing, more depleting, more impossible for some than for others
forty days… in which our deep inequalities are laid bare
forty days… in which our dark anxieties and dysfunctions will be challenged as if by the Satan, the accuser, the one who scoffs at love and sacrifice and relinquishing control, and resisting the intoxication of power, and asserting a freedom that degrades another
forty days… of a spiritual discipline – not for the sake of lent – but the real spiritual life of shared connectedness…
forty days… of covenant with one another, with those who have the least resources, hope, choices, support
forty days… in the wilderness together.
forty days… for real.
Forty day in the wilderness together.
Forty days of spiritual discipline for the real spiritual life of shared connectedness.
Forty days for real.
— Justin, State Director
Beth Barnett, Forty Days, https://multivocality.wordpress.com/2020/08/04/melbourne-stage-four-forty-days/
This story is part of the September 2020 issue of CONNECT. Read the latest update from our State Director here. For other stories from this issue, click on a tile below.
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