Happy is the man who takes the road less travelled…
By Destin Michael, Bridges 2023-24
I was singing along to a beautiful worship song the other day when it struck me that I don’t necessarily agree with the lyrics. (Surprise, surprise… this happens often as I listen to worship music.)
The worship leader was repetitively exclaiming, “You will lead me out of the wilderness, You will lead me out of this desert.” He was expressing his confidence that God will be faithful to take us from a current hardship, to a more restful place. We’ve all been there, feeling how unbearable certain tensions can become.
I could definitely appreciate the desire being conveyed – to give the Lord one’s trust in the face of adversity. As I think about my own life though, especially over the last five years, it occurred to me that my journey has been anything but a journey out of suffering. Rather, it’s been one where God is continually inviting me to go deeper into the wilderness:
- into costly sacrifice
- into challenging mission fields
- into complicated relationships
- into circumstances that perplex and hurt me
- into places where all I can do is let go and give up my ideas for how life should unfold.
If anything, my growth has been to embrace long-suffering and adjust to difficult realities… rather than to come into some kind of “Promised Land.” And this process has always been more of a blessing than I would have expected it to be. I better understand so much about God and the world precisely because He has increased my capacity to suffer gracefully (which is totally still not my specialty).And this seems to be a pattern repeated throughout Scripture.
Where Does the Spirit Lead Us?
I think of Mark 1:12, where we’re told, “Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” Then in Luke 5:16 we find that He would often intentionally “withdraw to desolate places to pray.” And at the end of his life, Hebrews 13 tells us, “Jesus suffered outside the gate of the city [outside the embrace of polite society], so that He might make the people holy with His own blood.” The writer exhorts us, “So, then, let’s go out to Him – outside the camp – bearing his shame. Here, you see, we have no city that lasts. We are looking for the one that is still to come.”
Ultimately, we will all be led out of the wilderness, in the Resurrection. We will be seen as Christ’s Bride “coming up from the wilderness, leaning upon Her Beloved” (Songs 8:5). Our tears will be no more. “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well,” as Lady Julian of Norwich famously said.
In the meantime, we have the opportunity to learn to find the gifts hidden right before us – even in the very circumstances we find hardest to accept. Generally, this is where God is forming us and reshaping us. His Spirit allures us to these lonely places… knowing it is where we can most clearly hear His still small voice, speaking tenderly to our hearts (Hosea 2:14).
Living A Blessed Life
There’s a Greek word used throughout Scripture to describe people who are “blessed.” The word is μακάριος (makarios). It’s used to describe people who are happy, flourishing, and well off. And as Joel B. Green notes, it’s consistently applied in the most counterintuitive ways.
- Psalm 1:1 uses it to describe people who resist ungodly counsel (the kind of counsel that often brings us worldly success).
- Psalm 32:1 uses it to describe those whose sins are forgiven (people who face their own failure, and don’t run from it).
- James 1:12 uses it to describe those who stand strong amidst testing (even when it doesn’t let up).
- Jesus uses it in the Beatitudes to describe the needy, the humble, the mourning, and the persecuted. He praises those who are still in a condition that most of us would only be able to see purpose in after we can testify that He brought us out of it all.
Following God’s plans for our lives rarely produces the fruit we expect. Often He woos us deep into difficult situations that require we be further humbled, that we might learn to let go of our endless striving, to stand in solidarity with marginalized people, to be developed in Christlike character, to love more bravely and generously, and to better resist the pull of this world’s offers for false peace, power, prosperity and popularity.
Springs in the Desert
If we have eyes to see it, a fresh invitation to the wilderness is often what it looks like to be promoted in the Kingdom. To get an upgrade. To better recognize this fading life for what it actually is, and to invest in building a better future for generations.
There is so much reward to be found here in the wilderness, in the desert. Here is the abiding Presence of a faithful Friend. Here is comfort, consolation and joy that makes no sense. Here is an ever-deepening self-awareness, along with the purgation of our insecurities. Here wisdom is developed, idols are stripped away, and our hearts are enlarged to receive even more grace from the Lord.
We tend to contrast the untamed nature of the wilderness with the beautiful order of the celestial city. We tend to see the dryness of the desert as nothing but a prelude to when we will flourish in a restored Paradise. But what if, like the Woman in Revelation 12, we could see the wilderness as our retreat center – “a place prepared by God, to be nourished there”? What if we are being lured to find “still waters” and “green pastures” right in the middle of an arid terrain (Psalm 23:2)? What if that’s where God wants us to drink from the streams that make us glad, so that we are unmoved by external circumstances (Psalms 46:4)? Is it possible this where we learn to feast on a peace that surpasses all understanding (Psalm 23:5, Philippians 4:7)?
Further, what if our opportunity is to release springs of living water from within (John 7:38), turning the desert around us into an oasis… a foretaste of the coming age? As we cooperate, willingly growing in resilience and surrender, could it be that we become God’s means of transforming the very atmosphere He’s led us into? Might we be His instruments for making “a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert” (Isaiah 43:19, Psalm 107:35)? What a privilege and honor that would be…
Oh how blessed are those who learn to live without an inflated sense of control over their futures!
Those who learn to swim in the waters of uncertainty, free from the delusions of having it all figured out.
Those who get familiar with the wilderness—with seemingly endless unpredictability, transition and obscurity—no longer rushing to escape it.
Blessed are those who are skilled at depending on God for their next breath, aware of His provision with every inhale.
Those who know how to be disliked, misunderstood, scrutinized, slandered—and to find that they are upheld through it all.
Those who no longer have an image to maintain or a crowd to appease.
Favored are those who discover how to become more tender through hardship, rather than being made hard themselves.
Happy are they that have grown by voluntarily enduring, staying in the crucible even when solutions seem long withheld.
These are the ones truly living “the good life.”
These are the heroes and teachers to learn from and esteem.
These are the ones to emulate when we’re seeing reality most clearly.
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Destin Michael serves as a content writer for a digital marketing firm in St. Louis, Missouri. As a former Bridges retreatant, Destin found the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises to be a powerful way to practice intentionally leaning into the wilderness… drawing away into the quiet, dialing into Jesus’ perspective on reality, and preparing one’s heart to better welcome the inevitably surprising circumstances of life.
Destin views seasons like the Bridges Retreat as key to reframing our perspective on the journey we face, sharpening our discernment for the days ahead.
More of Destin’s work can be found on his Substack blog.