Thriving in the Desert

I have been reading the book, A Praying Life, by Paul Miller.  There have been many quotable thoughts from this book.  I am up to a chapter called Unanswered Prayer: Understanding the Patterns of Story.  He has some good things to say about "Thriving in the Desert" that I could relate to from experiences in my life.

"God takes everyone he loves through a desert. It is his cure for our wandering hearts, restlessly searching for a new Eden.  Here's how it works.
  The First thing that happens is we slowly give up the fight. Our wills are broken by the reality of our circumstances. The things that brought us life gradually die. Our idols die for lack of food...
  The still, dry air of the desert brings the sense of helplessness that is so crucial to the spirit of prayer. You come face-to-face with your inability to live, to have joy, to do anything of lasting worth. Life is crushing you.
   Suffering burns away the false selves created by cynicism or pride or lust. You stop caring about what people think of you. The desert is God's best hope for the creation of an authentic self.
  Desert life sanctifies you. You have no idea you are changing. You simply notice after you've been in the desert awhile that you are different. Things that used to be important no longer matter...
  After a while you notice your real thirsts. While in the desert David writes,
                'O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. (Psalm 63:1)'
  The desert becomes a window to the heart of God. He finally gets your attention because he's the only game in town.
   You cry out to God so long and so often that a channel begins to open up between you and God. When driving, you turn off the radio just to be with God.  At night, you drift in and out of prayer when you are sleeping. Without realizing it, you have learned to pray continuously. The clear, fresh water of God's presence that you discover in the desert becomes a well inside your own heart. The best gift of the desert is God's presence."

He ends his chapter reminding us that when we don't receive what we pray for or desire it doesn't mean that God isn't acting but is weaving his story.  He reminds us to watch for the story God is weaving in our life.  Colossians 4:2 "continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving."  He says, "Thanksgiving helps us to be grace-centered, seeing all of life as a gift....watchfulness alerts us to the unfolding drama in the present."

Reflecting on my own life, I have had desert experiences.  The most significant one came along in 2004.  I ended that year feeling like I was standing in the middle of a vast desert that I couldn't see across and the only thing I knew to do was to cling to my Savior.  I remember very clearly one morning as I was preparing to go to the first Sunday service of the new year in 2005.  In my desperation, I prayed that God would give me a new scripture to cling to in the new year.  He answered that prayer in a huge way that Sunday morning and I came home and wrote the following passage down in several places so I would keep it in front of me,
   Isaiah 43:19 "Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert."
   By the end of 2005, I recounted numerous "new things" that had sprung forth that year.  I had become utterly dependent on God. I had thought I was before, but it was a new level of looking for his story in all things, especially those things that were hard and painful and didn't make sense to me. I learned to hear Him more clearly.
  In October of that year I had heard a prayer request for a little girl in China.  I also heard God speak to me about trusting Him when it didn't make sense.  That began the unfolding of an amazing story in all of our lives and ultimately the addition of two blessings in our family from the northwest corner of China. 
  Chapter 43 of Isaiah is a long chapter and I certainly didn't memorize it.  In the months we were waiting to travel to China in 2006, I was at a meeting where someone included a scripture in their praying it was, "when you pass through the waters I will be with you; and through the rivers they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned..."  I recognized it and thought it was from Isaiah, but wasn't sure where.  I looked for it the next day and found it was also Isaiah 43.  I decided to study the entire chapter and was stunned when I also came across, in that same chapter, a passage I had seen quoted on blogs of families adopting from China,
  Isaiah 43:5-7, "Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring descendants from the east, and gather you from the west; I will say to the north, 'Give them up!' and to the south, 'Do not keep them back!' Bring my sons from afar, and my daughters from the ends of the earth - everyone who is called by My name, whom I have created for My glory; I have formed him, yes, I have made him."

Yesterday, the kids wanted to do Bible drills and I ended up sending them to Isaiah.  I told them of the scriptures in Isaiah and we read 43:5-7 and discussed some parallels in our lives.  God brought two descendants from the east (China) and gathered us from the west when we went to retrieve them.  They were from northern China and especially in our second adoption, we had to fight to ask them to "give them up!"  All adopting families are required to exit from southern China where the US Consulate is located to request the required visas for the return to the US, we indeed said to the south, "Do not keep them back!"  He did bring a son from afar and a daughter from the end of the earth.  I believe they have been created for His glory.....

God's stories are the most amazing stories.  I know He gave me that little bit of scripture to sustain me in the desert.  The desert was painful to almost unbearable, but it did change me, it taught me utter dependence, it killed idols, it taught me what it means to pray continuously.  I learned to watch for the story God is weaving.