Tuesday, November 6, 2012




11/6/2012
Beauty in the Desert



I grew up in a small town in Arizona. There was nothing but Desert for miles to see, then the mountains rose up from the valley floor just as majestic as the day that God had created them.

Over the years I had seen a lot of friends and relatives come and stay at our house. It didn't matter what the reason for them coming was, it only mattered that they came.

Out of all the things that they said, the one thing I can remember them saying the most was how hot and desolate it was there. They said that, because they believed what they saw, and that was a lack of greenery and cool air. But just like all things, people tend to see things differently.

I know some people who would tell you that they would rather live in the Desert then anywhere else.

These people had seen something much different in that hot, dry, unforgiving climate that those visitors did.

I was raised in the Desert and don't remember complaining about the heat or wishing I was somewhere else.

I can remember all the places that we could go, just by simply driving out of town for an hour or two. I can remember going swimming at the city pool over the summers, going hunting in the Desert and surrounding mountains, and driving the endless gravel roads that seemed to go on forever.

We would ride our bikes to town , apx. 7 miles worth, and when we got there, begin to spend our meager allowances on dairy queen dilly bars, the latest toy, or just freezes from the local 7 eleven store. 

In a town where there was nothing to do, we always seemed to find something.

Others who had visited could not see what we could, and even now as I am older, when I explain it to others they seem unimpressed by my ramblings.

It is hard to explain something to someone who has never experienced it before.

This is because their experience was much different then what we experienced as we grew up as kids. But it doesn't change the fact that the Desert was a beautiful place for us as kids, and that for us created fond childhood memories of days spent exploring the Desert wilderness.

The Desert can be a harsh formidable place to live in, or it can be a place of unending beauty if you knew where to look.

A place where others couldn't wait to leave, was for us a home.

It is the same in my personal walk with God, I can either choose to see all the things that others complain about, and experience the result for that choice, or I can choose to see things as God does.

God has placed us in a world that has unmeasurable beauty, but as we go through this life beauty seems to fade away to a distorted picture that God never intended us to see.

In our own personal lives, God chose to take us through a seven year hiatus into the Desert. 

We came out with a personal relationship with Him as a result.

If you would have asked me at the time, I would have told you that I've never felt so alone in my life.

If you were to ask me now though, I would tell you that it was necessary to redirect my life into the path that God had for me.

But in the Desert it wasn't pretty, it was just hard.

I can now look back and know that those seven years were warranted, just as I can look back and know that for me the Desert was the right place as a child.

I know this because, of the memories from those many childhood days spent exploring that wilderness, and the adventure that was always waiting for us right around the corner.

Now I can see the beauty that comes from the Desert, and the beauty that comes from my God as well.

We were never created to live our lives complaining, instead we were made to find, and bask in the beauty that has been set before us.

It is important to see the world through God's eyes, because that is truly where the Desert becomes a place of beauty, and that is where the Desert becomes the promised land.

Just as I saw the beauty of that small Arizona town as a child, and lived the adventures that were set before us, we are to live the adventure that God daily sets before us.

This may take you having to go through the Desert to get there, but remember that there is beauty in the Desert, so stop sometime and look around and see what God has set there for you to see.

Then engage life and live the adventure, for that is where true joy is.

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