CAN YOU BLOOM IN THE DESERT?

I've made this trip before from California to Missouri, yet this time (in April 2013) when I drove my parents home, I looked at things differently.  I paid closer attention to the scenery.  Actually, I found a new appreciation for California or any state that is green, that has flowers and is not windy, hot, dirty disalite, ugly barren, boring, sad and forgotten about.  I know God doesn't make mistakes, but He came really close in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.  YUCK!  Yet, it made me think:

 

Maybe the desert could be a powerful experience.

 

miles and miles of nothing.....

 

and more miles of nothing...

 

 

In the desert, one is forced to live on the basics.  You are stripped down to all excessive luxuries.  You have to learn to live simply and be more grateful for what you have.

The silence of the desert takes away all the noise and distractions you fill yourself with.  There you are able to listen to yourself. (for me, it brings to mind the song "turn the quiet up and the noise down").  I would think in the desert you'd find out who you are and who you are not!  I would imagine the desert brings the best and the worst in you.  It is a place where you will find your weaknesses but also your strengths.  Because the desert is a barren place you cannot escape from your inner demons that keep you from running away from.  There you'd have the opportunity to confront and defeat them.

 

Some say the desert is  a place of preparation.  I was reading about John the Baptist.  He lived in the desert before he preached.  Jesus also lead by the Spirit went to the desert for 40 days before He started His ministry.  The desert can prepare us to handle the greatness that lies ahead.  It can stretch and strengthen us to go beyond our comfort level.  Many of us cannot just pick up and go to the desert and for that matter who really wants to do that!  But we can enter into a desert experience where we are, right now.  Trials are desert experience.  Trials can make us feel barren, "so alone".  Our sufferings in life can make us feel like we are living in the desert.

It is amazing, the difference a drop of rain can make.  Almost overnight, it seems, the desert springs to life (well not quite, I looked and looked for some color, a flower, a bloom, anything). With rain, the seeds that lie dormant suddenly are triggered to action.  Flowers of different colors and kind suddenly bloom out of no where.  I hear even a couple of days of rain is enough to transform the landscape.

 

It can also be true for us.  We need to enter the silence and barrenness of the desert to trigger our talents and gifts.  Sometimes, we need trials for us to bloom.  So let's try to let "our desert experience" produce "blooming in us"!

 

I love the parable, dislike the desert, but realize what doesn't kill us will make us stronger!

 

I'm glad I passed through the desert, but my destination was different...same with life...I know I will have to pass through some barren and alone times in order to get to where I am going!

 

all because of His Amazing Grace.....