Crossing The Spiritual Desert

by Jim Reynolds⁽¹⁴⁾

The phone collapsed in my hand nearly as hard as my heart did in my chest. What do I do now? Distressing news is frustrating enough, but coupled with an aggravating vagueness in answer to my prayers, it was nearly enough to close my heart as tightly as the phone. When the heavens are brass and the earth is hardscrabble dust, what then? A water-logged man has much to teach us about spiritual dryness.

⁹ So Naaman came with his horses and his chariots, and stood at the doorway of the house of Elisha. ¹⁰ And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, "Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you and you shall be clean." ¹¹ But Naaman was furious and went away and said, "Behold, I thought, 'He will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place, and cure the leper.' ¹² "Are not Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?" So he turned and went away in a rage. ¹³ Then his servants came near and spoke to him and said, "My father, had the prophet told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, 'Wash, and be clean'?" ¹⁴ So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

If you’ve been there – and we all have been – you feel Naaman’s pain. Cut off from loved ones by circumstances we don’t understand and can’t control. No end in sight. God seems unnecessarily distant. Certainly sin sometimes blocks the flow of relationship and there are some circumstances that we can control that often help get us back on the road. But sometimes restoring our relationship with God seems as impossible as walking on the moon or changing the color of the sky. Sometimes we’re not sure our prayers make it to the ceiling, let alone bounce off of it.

A few years ago, there was a lotion commercial that made soft skin look like paradise. Millions of miniature people represented each individual pore. They were wrapped in towels as if they’d just finished enjoying a relaxing massage and then they all let out a collective sigh of contentment: “Ahhh….” Wouldn’t it be nice to have some sort of “spiritual moisturizer?” “New and Improved! It’s Soul Care! In just minutes… one application and your spirit will be revitalized… soft and supple, radiant… like a child again.” Or even if it was much more difficult than that, haven’t you found yourself desperate to re-connect to God?

One of Naaman’s servants confronted his master with this question: “had the prophet told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it?” If I told you – right now – that the answer to all of our spiritual dilemmas was to run a triathlon, would you strap on your running shoes and start training? Some of us would. But, in fact, God often asks us to do something even more difficult.

Look at Naaman in a dirty river, in a country he despised. Can you sense his desperation? His separation and his pain was so severe that he succumbed to what he must have thought, at the time, was meaningless superstition. He has dipped himself three, four, five times in the murky water. His hair is mussed and sticking to his face. His ears are full, his eyes are stinging. And he’s thinking, “What on earth am I doing?!” Perhaps the same servant gently reminded him, “You are obeying; you are doing what the man of God told you to do.”

This is what God asks us to do: keep obeying… EVEN WHEN YOU CAN SEE NO REASON TO CONTINUE. (Ugh… where are those running shoes again?) When Jesus was about to leave His disciples – the most difficult and painful separation imaginable – He reminded them many times: if you love Me, obey My commandments. When Peter and the other fishermen had been fishing all night, letting the nets down and bringing them up empty, He asked them to let the nets down one more time. When the walls of Jericho stood just as strong and immovable as ever, perhaps Joshua encouraged his men to circle the city one more time. When the water-logged Naaman emerged from the river for the sixth time, perhaps he thought to himself: one more time.

Joni Erickson Tada, the inspirational woman confined to a wheel chair by a diving accident in her youth, recently put it this way: “Even though you haven’t seen amazing results in recent weeks. Even though your emotions say, “What’s the use?” Even though running an uphill marathon seems more appealing than seeking the Lord right now. Nevertheless, obey the word of Christ… Keep in the Word. Hit your knees and return to prayer. Confess your sins of unbelief (not to mention, a sour, skeptical attitude). Get into a closer relationship of accountability with a trusted Christian friend. Do some little, special thing for your wife and kids. Worship your God this coming Sunday morning with a hands-down, slam-dunk amazement over his grace to you and every other sinner in your congregation. Because sooner or later, he’ll surprise you… He’s going to bring you out of that long night – out of that dryness. You’re going to experience his joy … more joy than you can handle. So be faithful, friend. Trust him. Wait on him.”

Often, when we hear advice like this, we cringe and even pout and whine: “That’s what I have been doing and look where’s it’s gotten me!” I know it’s difficult. I know you want to give up. (I do too.) I know it hurts and you don’t understand. I know you’re “sick and tired of being sick and tired,” spiritually speaking. However, NONE of that changes the realities of God’s promise. Nor does it change any of the responsibilities of being His child. Let down the nets. Keep walking. Keep circling. Keep dipping in the same old, muddy water. One more time. Soon, just like Naaman, you will be “restored… like a little child… clean.” And all God’s people contentedly said, “Ahh……”

Walk WITH Jesus,

Jim

Article submitted Friday, July 01, 2011 & read 345 times.

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» left by Anonymous (305 days 2 hours ago.)

thank you. I am in a desert period in life now and reading this keeps me going. thank you.

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