Being Led into the Wilderness

Ric Stott has been exploring Lent and talking about the freedom which comes from getting lost. He is an artist who is also one of the Venture FX pioneers. Within his post he talks about the way in which getting lost is a terrifying experience which goes against our natural instincts yet can give some new and interesting results.

I largely agree with what Ric says but I want to take issue with a tiny part of it. Within his post he talks of Jesus getting lost in the desert but omits to mention that Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert.

It might seem like a small thing but I think it's really important because getting lost implies an accident or mistake of some kind, but this was a place Jesus was intentionally led into, there was no accident about it.

At the beginning of Lent Jesus being led into the wilderness was a theme I found myself exploring within a sermon and part of the conclusion I came to was that Jesus was led out into the wilderness because he needed some serious thinking space. The Spirit led him into this wilderness because he needed to be alone to work out what he was going to do. He needed to be away from everybody else's advice to be able to hear God and to come to his own conclusions about the future without all the outside voices crushing in.

This being alone is something in our modern society we can find difficult. There are many people now who feel uncomfortable with silence or with the thought of not having access to the latest information at the tip of their fingertips.  But there are times when we need to give ourselves a chance to be alone with God and times we need to allow ourselves to be led into the wilderness.

I would say moving into the wilderness is difficult in part because being or feeling alone isn't easy. Being disconnected from the centre of things can make us feel uncomfortable. Spending time being rather than doing is challenging because we can't hide from our thoughts in the same way as we can when we are in the middle of activity.

Recently I read Digital Vertigo: how today's online social revolution is dividing, diminishing and disorienting us . It's an interesting book which discusses the reasons for the rise of social media and highlights the dangers of it. One of the things it makes clear early on is that it is getting increasingly difficult to get lost. Whilst we may think we are embracing increasing freedom via digital and mobile technology Andrew Keen, the book's author, argues that we are becoming increasingly constrained by rules and understandings of identity. I would argue we are also being put in a position where it is increasingly difficult to have the time to think without others influencing our thoughts.

I believe the Spirit does still seek to lead us into the wilderness so, as Stott says, we can encounter God, each other and ourselves. What we need is the courage not to get lost but rather to be led into this place and that may mean turning off our technology in order to be able to hear ourselves think.  

As I've written this Rachael Held Evans has come to mind. In the mist of debates around evangelicalism and the debates around same sex marriage and the World Vision flip flop (mess) she has posted about needing some time out. In the mist of all the current debates too many people seem to have become entrenched in identity labelled positions. Too many seem to be feeling wounded and hurt by a debate which is pitting friend against friend and losing sight of what we have in common. Perhaps there is a call for us to get out of those trenches and start be led into the wilderness but as Ric has made clear "it's an experience which is as terrifying as it is liberating".