Something sensational to read in the train

Forgive me, friends. If you read the Times of Restoration, you are about to get a repeat.

When I got back from my road trip last week, I found a mysterious handwritten letter waiting for me. Illinois? I know only one family from there, and this name certainly wasn't it! Curious, I tore the envelope open and discovered a dear note from a precious elderly lady who told me that she has wanted to write me ever since she read my article. Eh, which article? I thought back. Surely not my yearbook testimony. Aha, that's right; an article by yours truly HAD been published in our church magazine in the Bible school ministry/Monadnock Beacon section. I had written it my first year of Bible school for our student website, and the editor of Times of Restoration had requested it for a spring issue. I polished it a little (I'm constantly trying to self-critique and improve my untrained writing) and turned it in for the the March/April issue.

Interested to read this article from the perspective of this sweet yet complete stranger, I dug it out and read it.

And it blessed me all over again.

Is it weird or arrogant to be blessed by something you've written yourself? I hope not. Because, I confess, I am often blessed when I go back to read my testimonies or many of my journal entries. I feel like Gwendolyn from The Importance of Being Earnest:

"I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train."

I hope I'm not quite so obsessed with myself, but I can still chuckle and relate to her. After all, one should always enjoy your own writing, or nobody else will. Vibes are contagious.

Therefore, because it fit my current situation and blessed me, perhaps God can use this article to bless somebody else. Here goes:

"The Desert Road"

Face it. Life is not always a bed of roses. Sure, we can be cheerful, and we may be able to rejoice in our salvation, but sometimes we need more. Here's the question: Is it possible to be glad in spiritually dry times?

This morning I was reading my Bible as usual. Unfortunately, I'd had a busy week and my quiet times with God had been a bit rushed, but this Sabbath morning I wanted to soak more in God's Word. As I was reading, I came across the account in Acts about Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch. However, it wasn't the story I noticed, but what happened right before the story.

Philip had just come from Samaria where he had blazed a trail for Christianity. The crowds had hung on his words, eating up every syllable. More importantly, they had responded and many were saved. Oh, and don't forget that God had also performed great miracles through him. Basically, Philip was on a spiritual high, ready to evangelize the whole globe if God spoke the word, and perhaps his ear was just itching to hear the command.

What he heard was not what he expected.

An angel of the Lord told him to follow a certain road. That sounded promising. Surely the road would take him to some great city that would soon fall on its knees when its inhabitants heard what Philip had to say. But not this road. We're told quite simply that this was a desert place.

Huh?

If I had been Philip, I would have been protesting, "Hello! Didn't you just see what I've been doing? There are no people in the desert! How am I supposed to spread the good news? If you send me into the desert, I won't be of any use!" Although it may be natural to feel this way, I now realize how inaccurate that outlook really is.

First of all, usefulness isn't dependent on how we think we should be used, but on how the One who designed us chooses to use us. Just because we're a hammer doesn't mean that all we're going to do is drive nails. What if we're called to pull out nails? Or what if, as a gung-ho fork ready to stab any food, you're called instead to have food shoved against you so that the spoon can scoop up the edibles? Has the hammer or fork lost its usefulness just because it's not driving nails or stabbing victuals? Of course not! Each is merely being plugged in to fill a different job. Maybe we are designed to be someone who brings hundreds of people to the Lord; but if the Holy Spirit calls us to a desert place to do one small task for Him, that can be just as effective.

What stood out even more to me is that sometimes the Holy Spirit Himself may send us into the desert. As Christians, we know that spiritually dry times are almost inevitable, but should we be discouraged just because we don't sense God's work in our lives? No, He may be choosing to send us into a wasteland, and if so, He knows exactly what He's doing. After all, how are we supposed to have faith in God's goodness if He's constantly showering us with blessings? In essence, we could be saying, "Yes, God, I know you're good and faithful because I've seen all these wonderful things happening to me, but why aren't you faithful to me now when I need you most?"

Wrong question!

God will never stop His faithfulness, but He can stop His blessings. Let me repeat that. God will never stop His faithfulness, but He can stop His blessings; we just need to recognize the difference. However, what we need to realize even more isn't just that the Holy Spirit sometimes send us into a desert.

He's also right there in the desert with us.

And if that's the case, suddenly the desert doesn't seem quite so desert-like.

So it's okay if we experience dry times. Perhaps that is exactly where God wants us to be. His power is not limited by a lack of rain.

A fine example of the wrong approach occurred when Jesus fed the multitudes in the wilderness. In one of the cases, they wanted to make Him king by force, but their motives weren't pure. They loved Jesus not for who He was, but for what He had given them. Are we followers of Christ because we're hungry for the Bread of Life, the only One who can satisfy, or because we're hungry only for the bread of blessings we receive from Him?

When we talked about this in class a little while ago, I felt convicted because I tend to love the blessing (the "bread") rather than the Blesser (the "Bread"). Do I seek Jesus, or the things that He offers? And remember that although the blessings might not follow us into the desert, the Blesser does! So even in a barren land, we can still cling to the heart of God, knowing that we're where we're supposed to be.

One thing I've learned at Bible School is that in the end, almost every spiritual lesson boils down to one thing: Stay connected to Jesus. He is the answer to every problem, every care, and every burden. Nothing lies outside His scope or ability. He can use any situation no matter how bleak. He's with us in the desert. And what He has in store for us is beyond the limit of our imaginations.

So what if we're in a desert? Do we have a fervent longing to see Jesus no matter what it takes? Does a desire for Him burn within us? We need not be discouraged if we're unable to strike the match ourselves. The Holy Spirit can set the blaze burning even in  a shriveled wilderness. Fire usually kindles best in the driest of deserts.