Ready

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  Matthew 4:1 ESV

I often feel that the wilderness is just where I’m going to spend my whole life.  This frustrates me.  I don’t particularly like the wilderness.

When I think of the wilderness, visions of a dry, barren desert come to mind.  I suppose a forest or jungle could also be considered wilderness.  Either way, it’s the idea of a place that is undeveloped, untamed, and wild.

In the wilderness, everything, it seems, is a struggle.  Nothing comes easily.  Food must be foraged, hunted, or scavenged.  Even then, sometimes that which looks good to eat or drink actually is not.

The wilderness is a place of danger.  You must always be on your guard.  Wild animals lurk, waiting to attack.  You are at the mercy of nature and the elements.  If it is cold, warmth is hard to find.  If it is hot, shade may be difficult to come by.  In rain or snow, shelter is not readily available.

Life in the wilderness requires knowledge, wisdom, and tenacity.

By definition, the wilderness is a place of struggle.

But the wilderness can also be a place of great beauty.

Even freedom.  

It is a place where lessons are learned, skills are developed, and muscles are strengthened.

Or, it is where you die.

Jesus was in the wilderness for forty days.  The Bible doesn’t tell us a lot about those days.  We are told that Christ fasted for forty days.  Scripture also tells us that Jesus was tempted by the devil for those forty days, but we are not told what that temptation looked like.  Matthew and Luke relate to us three specific interactions that came at the very end of the forty days, but we don’t know about all that led up to those moments.

What we do know is that at the end of those forty difficult days, Jesus was still living.  He had not given up, or given in.  He was tired, but He had survived.  And, perhaps most importantly, after a brief time of recovery, He was ready.

As we begin our journey into the wilderness, it is important that we do so with our eyes open to some basic facts:

The wilderness will be hard.  

It will likely bring some pain.  

There will be unpleasantness.

Beyond the wilderness, there will be some time for recovery, but there will also be challenges.  You may find opportunities you never dared to dream of!

What lies beyond the wilderness is beyond your current qualifications.  It’s “above your pay grade,” so to speak.  It’s not that there’s something wrong with you.  You’re just not ready.

If God were to present you with that future today, you would likely cower in fear.  Or perhaps, you would run away.  You might look at the challenge and deem it impossible.

Perhaps not.  Maybe you’re a “go-getter” and love the idea of a challenge.  Perhaps you would attack the opportunity head-on with great zeal.  The outcome you might achieve will be so much less than what might have been had you waited on God.

You see, the wilderness is for preparation.  As your first-grade self would not have scored well on an algebra exam, pre-wilderness you is just not yet ready for post-wilderness challenges.  It’s okay.  You’re not supposed to be ready.  

A few years ago, I got the notion that I would like to run a half-marathon.  That’s 13.1 miles!  I’m not really sure what inspired me to want to do such a thing, having run a total of TWO 5ks in my life, both several years prior.  Even in my youth, I’m not sure I’d ever run more than three or four miles in any given day.  But, experience and ability aside, I paid my entry fee and signed up to run my first half-marathon.

Thankfully, the race was about ten months out.  I had a lot of work to do to be ready!  

Suppose, though, that I got up one morning, heard that there was a half marathon happening down the road, and decided to go run it.  With no experience and no preparation, there is little chance that I could have completed the race.  And there is a high possibility that I could have seriously injured myself trying.

Months of workouts and training runs were necessary for me to get ready for my race.  I did research, read articles, talked to people who had run long distances.  I started with very slow running at very short distances, gradually working my way up to slightly less slow running and increasingly longer distances.  Having gone through the preparation, when race day arrived, I felt as ready as I could be.  It was incredibly hard, but I completed it!

The wilderness is your training season.  Challenges are coming that you are not presently able to handle.  Times of rest and blessing lie beyond the wilderness, but first there is work to be done.  Don’t waste your energy trying to get comfortable.  Just focus on the task at hand.  Get ready!