Choosing Our Perspective

One of the most impacting books I remember reading in college was Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl, a survivor of the Nazi death camps during WWII. The primary point that I came away with was that the one thing that cannot be taken away from you is your ability to choose how you will respond to or view your life’s circumstances.

The concentration camps did an excellent job at taking away people’s family, their freedom and even their dignity. But as Frankl saw so many people, even after the war, slip into the living-dead state of despair, bitterness and hatred, he realized he had a choice.

We get to choose our perspective. I know from first-hand experience just how easy it is to allow oneself to feel like someone has stolen your hope or your joy. It is easy to say, “They made me so mad!” But in truth I am the only one capable of choosing whether or not I will become angry, or bitter, or hopeful or anything else.

As we wrap up month four of fundraising for church planting I am realizing just how important Frankl’s point is in our lives. Several weeks ago I found myself struggling to maintain a positive outlook. It seemed like there was no end to the list of folks who were saying, “We think that what you’re doing is great, but we can’t help you. Good luck.” Most frustrating were those who expressed confidence in us personally, in our passion, our calling and our ministry…but because of the non-traditional nature of our church plant they weren’t going to be able to officially support us.

This was beginning to have a negative impact on my perspective. And then God decided it was time for me to stop acting like a baby!

Through a series of events I met and had coffee with a church planter from the Assemblies of God. After having visited Tammany Oaks and talked with me only once he offered some incredible encouragement and affirmation – both on our calling and the content of our message. He even expressed a desire to maintain contact as his church plant may be interested in helping us once they get established.

I left that conversation with a choice. I could continue in my frustration at minor setbacks or I could realize that God has been so much more than faithful in sending us a constant stream of blessings, reminders of his love and affirmations of his calling.

I decided that I was going to choose a better perspective. And I believe that (in part) because of that choice, God has opened even more doors. At the time of my conversation with this other church planter we had no congregations seriously considering support. As I am writing this there are four different churches who are going to be making decisions about substantial one time gifts and/or continuing monthly support.

We have raised 35% of our total goal from individuals and families and we’re expecting confirmation of at least two more commitments in the next few days. We are heading to San Antonio this weekend for a fundraising dinner and Chris is meeting with another mission’s committee regarding our support.

Our family here at Tammany Oaks continues to remain supportive of us and I’m constantly being told how much we’re appreciated here. Our biological family continues to make sacrifices, work tirelessly and pray constantly for us. And 22 different individuals and families have already expressed their support through special gifts and monthly commitments. Chris and Heidi have been focusing on raising support for us, when they could justifiably say, “Sorry we’ve got our own mountains to climb.”

It seems that every time I turn around I’m talking to someone who just had a conversation with someone else who was telling them about what we’re doing. We are getting very close to seeing this dream become a reality!

At the end of the day, I have nothing to complain about. I have cried out to God in my despair and he has continually shown himself to be quick to save. I will continue to put my hope in the Lord for in him is full redemption.

I am very grateful to everyone who has partnered with us so far – either financially or in other ways like hosting events, spreading the word, etc. Many of you have committed to prayer, I believe that these prayers have provided a buffer between us and exhaustion, frustration, anxiety, and so many other forms of darkness.

If you’ve been thinking about making a financial commitment but have been unsure because of the economy – I understand…trust me I REALLY do! Let me encourage you, if you haven’t done so, to put this before God and ask if He is calling you to step out in faith in this way. I will not make any claims that if you send this money that God will send it back ten-fold…you guys know what I think about that business.

Honestly, your participation with us in this ministry may bring you much persecution. But I believe that we will be blessed and refined by this fire. I believe that partnering with God in his mission will ignite within us something rich and deep…something we were created to experience but often miss because we are afraid. I look forward to sitting down with you sometime in the near future and telling you about the individuals who have hope and light and life where before there was nothing but despair, darkness and death. This is God’s mission of reconciliation and God will not fail.

False Summits

Believe it or not I used to be an athlete. No…seriously, stop laughing, I was.

I was strong, I was fast and I was even a little agile. But I wasn’t any of those things naturally. What made me an athlete was that I’ve always been ridiculously competitive. I can’t stand when someone THINKS I can’t do something, and if they actually have the nerve to say it…

So I worked harder than most – not harder than all, but harder than most. I strategized and studied. But mostly I just kept fighting until my opponents or detractors gave up

And it wasn’t always enough. Sometimes the other team was too big; sometimes my opponents were too fast. For whatever reason, I just didn’t always have what it took to come out ahead no matter how hard I fought.

A few years ago, as a youth minister in Dallas, I began preparing for TREK when we would attempt to climb Mt. Elbert – the tallest mountain in Colorado. I wasn’t that worried. You see in my mind I am still strong, fast and agile…in my mind. I’m convinced that there is still an athlete in there somewhere – actually it looks like there might be two or three.

So I began working out and jogging. I got in pretty good shape. As we began our trip up the mountain I felt really good. The long hike up to high camp was surprisingly easy and as we got ready for our summit attempt I felt very confident. Unfortunately in my preparation I did not have access to any mountains or high altitude gyms in Dallas. As we moved up to the higher elevations I found myself getting pretty light headed and a few times I even found myself sitting down when just a moment before I’d been walking.

It was very frustrating. I’d prepared! I was ready! And now, uber-competitive Bret looked like a pansy in front of teenagers (who, as you may know are SOOO compassionate and understanding!). What made the whole thing more difficult was the mental fatigue. If you’ve ever climbed a mountain you know there are “false summits” – places that to the climber look like the peak of the mountain until you get there and realize that there’s more mountain on the other side. Elbert had plenty of those little presents for us.

Each time I gathered my strength and pushed on to the summit, only to discover it wasn’t even close to the top, it took more and more out of me. Each new push became more and more difficult to conjure up. By the time we got to where we could finally see the real summit I almost didn’t care any more. Honestly I didn’t care any more – the only reason I creeped up that final stretch was because my competitive side would not stand for the verbal abuse I would have to endure if I didn’t finish.

False summits have almost done me in at several points in my life. They can be more difficult than strong, fast and agile opponents – even more difficult than the lack of oxygen at high altitudes. False summits drain our emotional and psychological reserve, which in turn drains our physical energy as well.

I realize that at some point we need to reach a summit – everyone has different limits, but no one has an inexhaustible supply of energy. As difficult as it can get, we must remember that the summit is there, even if it seems out of reach. The temptation to just lie down and quit can be strong, but we never know if the next ridge will be the final one. What a shame it would be to give up when our goal was within reach. But even that hope can wear thin eventually.

I watched the new Batman movie with Chappotin yesterday. (I’d heard it was pretty good – and I was not disappointed.) One of the lines that stuck out to me was Alfred telling Bruce Wayne that everyone has limits, even Batman. Discovering our limits can be painful…and so can discovering that we can endure more than we imagined.

There are times when we have no choice but to push and push ourselves beyond what we would've thought we could endure. We have to because...well, because we have to. On top of that mountain it was pretty simple. Beyond motivation, preparation or inspiration I had to get up and put one foot in front of the other until we were there. I certainly didn't do it alone - the value of community was brought home in a real sense that day - and without the preparation I had done or motivation to succeed, I likely would not have made it. Yet I was still faced with the choice to continue or quit. Regardless of anything else; difficult circumstances, un-cooperating body, etc, I still had the option to choose my response.

On Bayou Cane

Jimmy Moragne has been telling me about this great place to launch my kayak for months now. This past weekend Jimmy, his cousin Leland and I took our boats (a small aluminum boat w/ a 25 hp outboard, a pirogue and a kayak, respectively) out to Bayou Cane. There are lots of great little bayous around here. The cool thing about this one is that on one side you have Fontainebleau State Park and on the other Big Branch Marsh Natl Wildlife Refuge…very scenic, plenty of wildlife and once you get away from the highway you can’t hear anything but nature. I lost track of how many alligators we saw (most were pretty small but there was one…wow).

We paddled and trolled down the bayou to the lake (Pontchartrain) and fished for a while. We caught several croakers (which I took home and had for lunch!) and some other little stuff. It was a great day – I wish I had been more intentional about taking Jimmy up on his offer to go out a long time ago!

This morning was a really good one for me. I got up early…okay, not really that early, but this is my story, leave me alone. I took my kayak back out to Bayou Cane (that's when I took the picture at the top of this post...floating in the middle of a particularly wide stretch of water). Jimmy and I had talked about how perfect a place this would be to get out early and spend some time in silence and prayer. It was great. (An added benefit, I found out that 1 hour of kayaking will burn about 520 calories…bonus!)

I love the outdoors. I love camping, hunting, fishing, hiking and most recently kayaking. I love to simply sit or walk out in the woods with no real goal or agenda. I used to make fun of bird watchers but I’ve grown to enjoy looking for new birds. I saw an osprey flying by with a fish the other day – that was cool. Not long after that I paddled my kayak right over an alligator that was about 6 inches below the surface, eating a fish (not a good day to be a fish…).

If you’ve spent much time out you know, everything tastes better in the woods (or on the lake, river, whatever). Coffee tastes better. Jambalaya tastes better (living here has affected me in several ways). Fresh fish always tastes good, but cooked outdoors 15 minutes after being caught…

And there is nothing BUT outdoors around here! True we’re just outside New Orleans…but it’s 24 miles across that lake, and up here alligators outnumber people. Within 10 minutes driving distance from my house there’s Riverbend State Park, Fontainebleau State Park, Big Branch Refuge, the Tchefuncte River, countless bayous and of course Lake Pontchartrain. But do I get out and enjoy it very often? No.

Starbucks is a great place for me to study because there are plenty of people there and I get to interact with them. But when I need time for solitude and silence do I head out to the lake front or float the river? Nope…I usually waste time and then as I’m laying down at night I think, “I wish I’d used my time better today.”

Isn’t that interesting? It’s not that I wasted my time doing unimportant things – contrary to popular belief, as a preacher I work a lot. I spend a good deal of time studying, preparing lessons, talking and praying with people, counseling and listening to folks in the midst of crisis…

And I’m usually exhausted; often I’m giving out of my emptiness rather than abundance. Our first year in LA was extremely rough for a lot of reasons. The past year has been much less drama-filled but I’ve struggled with a deep sense of loneliness – its not that we haven’t made friends; we’ve actually made some very good ones. But it’s been hard to be alone in ministry.

Truth be told, much of this is really my own fault. Not that I could’ve done a much about the lack of coworkers, but I haven’t been intentional enough about handling the small things I can do something about. Eating right, exercise, getting outdoors to read and pray (early in the morning when it isn’t a million degrees and the mosquitoes haven’t begun hunting…); all of these things could have really helped. An hour in the kayak once or twice a week could have been doing wonders…if I would just get up early enough to do it!

Okay, what’s the point here? This isn’t just meant to be a rant or self-disclosure. I think that for many of us – especially those in ministry who spend lots of time reading and teaching about spiritual formation – there is a need to remember that God created a beautiful earth (in part) for our sanity and health. We can and should spend a great deal of time and energy serving and investing in others. We can and should be concerned about being a voice of hope to the poor and oppressed. We can and should have disciplined times of study. But perhaps we should also hike or kayak or sit on the porch…or whatever it is that you enjoy. Floating down the bayou didn’t seem like work; didn’t feel like practicing a spiritual discipline, but it was an important opportunity for God to work through his creation to begin refilling my ridiculously empty tank.

Some recent events around here have raised my anxiety and frustration level. I've been trying to shake 'em but it has been very difficult. This morning I didn't think about those things...and when I began to I'd just paddle harder and my less-than-skinny self didn't have enough energy to stress out.

It doesn't make sense that God would create a place as beautiful as this and not desire for us to stop and enjoy it from time to time. I'm going to start doing that more. What about you?

Are They Looking For A Sign?

Self disclosure - before deciding to go to ACU and get a ministry degree I seriously considered working on computer animation and graphic design at Texas A&M (I was highly influenced by bi-vocational ministers who didn't have seminary type training for ministry).

Folks who know me know that I love to play around with logos and designs. I've got some cheap software that lets me dabble and I've even done some stuff for other folks on occasion. All that is to say that I really appreciate communicating through visual media.

We've been incredibly blessed with a professional graphic artist who has donated her time and talent to design us a whole theme packet for our support raising endeavors. Amy's contribution is so valuable because it tells me that folks are connecting with our vision and want to help in whatever way they can. It's also valuable because I know how much it would have cost to have something like this designed!



However, recently I've had the opportunity to reflect on signs and logos and their purpose. Our hope is that our information packet communicates certain things to people - that we're serious and invested in what we're doing rather than just throwing something together on a whim; that we value the visual aspects of community and faith, etc.

What I hope that it does not communicate is that marketing and a professional looking organization is the basis for our evangelism. I hope it does not communicate that our expectation is to create an attractional community - in other words that our evangelistic strategy is "build it so that they will come". We certainly want folks to feel welcome - and to know where to find us if they so choose.

But where evangelism is concerned, I find this word "missional" to be valuable. I realize that this buzzword is sometimes used indiscriminately to mean "progressive" or something like that. For me this word means that our focus is on a community of people who have been called by God to faith and sent by God to invite others to faith as well. Missional means that our primary evangelism strategy is to meet people where they are rather than inviting them to join us where we are. It doesn't mean that we don't invite people or seek for our gatherings to be welcoming and relevant...it just means that there's something more central to our mission than inviting someone to church on Sunday morning.

I will say this though, when things start getting practical, it is very hard to avoid an attractional mindset. We think in terms of programs and events. We think about advertising to the community. We think about signs, banners, websites and yellow page ads. We think about ways to attract people to our building. Again there's nothing inherently wrong with any of this.

But what about when there are groups and agencies with more money that can host better felt needs events? Do we try to compete with the YMCA or social agencies providing the same basic content in their parenting seminar? Sure we want to incorporate a spiritual component...but do we assume that non-Christians are going to choose a program with a spiritual component over something conducted by a social agency? At that point has the program lost its evangelistic focus and become more internally motivated? (which is fine so long as we're aware that it has happened and we're not wondering why our evangelistic event is only attended by members of our church)

What about when teens have their own entertainment and "free pizza and PG movie" just doesn't sound all that attractive? How do we respond then? Do we sit around and lament this new generation that doesn't care about their spiritual life?

Are we counting on a sign by the road to attract large crowds? Maybe it will...what if it doesn't? Does that mean we need to reevaluate the look of our sign? The content? The biblical permission to have a sign? Or does it mean we need to reevaluate our assumptions about evangelism?

I am very much in favor of spending some time and energy making sure that what we do is done well. I like the idea of catchy name, logo, sign or banner. I don't think this is an either/or situation. In the end, I'm convinced that people ARE looking for a sign...



just maybe not the ones we've focused on...

What Did You Say You're Doing Again?

That is the question we’ve heard again and again since we made the announcement of our upcoming relocation for the purpose of planting churches. Some people haven’t heard of “church planting” others have heard of it but have no idea what it means practically.

To put it simply, we are going to be missionaries in the Burleson/south Fort Worth area.

Rachel, the Wellsbrothers and I have accepted this calling after A LOT of prayer, discussions, wrestling, debating, waiting, thinking, talking, studying, researching and more praying. I’ve felt a calling in this direction for quite some time and I believe that God has used our time here in southern Louisiana to prepare us for precisely what we are about to do.

But some people still wonder what it means to “be missionaries.” At the most basic level it means that we are looking to introduce people to Jesus and call them to join us as we seek to follow him as disciples. We’re prayerfully hoping to start neighborhood Bible studies, house churches, worship gatherings and new churches in general.

More specifically we’ll be partnering with Christ Journey, a 3 year-old church planting church in Burleson (www.christjourneylife.com). Initially, I will be assisting CJ in the area of spiritual formation; working with the intentional processes of evangelism and discipleship – of inviting people to this journey with Christ and assisting them as they become and mature as followers.

We believe that becoming a fully integrated, committed and participatory member of the body is a process rather than solely an immediate event. My role will be to evaluate and cultivate this process, and to both encourage and challenge our community as we continue to journey together. Some of the aspects of this process currently include 3 to 4 person Formation Groups, the 10 week Foundations course, as well as the Marvelous Light and City on a Hill retreats.

Formative events such as these are an important part of a faith community. However, I intend to focus the majority of my time on relationships, even when in the context of events or activities. I want to invest in people more than programs. We’ve already had the opportunity to begin getting to know a few folks from Christ Journey. Thanks to an internet workgroup blog, I get to collaborate with worship planning. We also recently began reading and discussing a book together.

Christ Journey is also preparing to launch a second worship gathering. As this becomes a reality, Chris Chappotin, the Lead Minister/Pastor at Christ Journey will take the leadership role in one service and I in the other. Our prayer and goal is that this will serve as the foundation for the first church plant of Christ Journey.

Since we've already begun collaborating together on worship planning, Chris and I intend to continue working together (and with others) to study, discuss and plan the worship experiences at CJ. I am excited that this approach will allow us to continue to work in community rather than isolation, yet also provides us with opportunity for nourishment - we both will have a worship gathering where we can participate not as someone "in charge."

We'll also focus on developing leadership and launching new house churches and worship gatherings as part of our dream to see the gospel advancing into new communities all over the south Forth Worth area.

For some, the term “house church” is a bit ambiguous and may even have a different meaning than our context. A house church is basically a gathering of several families, usually in someone’s home, for a time of teaching, worship, fellowship and encouragement. House churches are an intentional component of Christ Journey, and a primary source of discipleship and spiritual formation for our community. This is not the same as individual families staying home on Sunday and declaring that they are having “house church.”

Okay, so here’s the deal.

We, like most missionaries, are raising support for this ministry. While we were not offered a salary from Christ Journey (though CJ is handling our funds as they come in) we are very excited and have already begun working in faith.

This means that my family and I are looking for partners willing to support us on a monthly basis, annually or even with a special donation. Donations can be made to Christ Journey on our behalf, which means that they are eligible for tax write-offs. If you (or someone you know) would like to know more, please don’t hesitate to contact me – we should have information packets available very soon and, as anyone who knows me will testify, it won’t be hard to coerce me into talking at length about our calling and what we need.

Thanks to everyone who has already served as encouragers and prayer partners. We are extremely grateful to those who have already begun supporting us and we would also like to thank in advance those of you whom the Lord is currently preparing to join us as financial supporters.

For those who are interested, donations can be mailed to:

Christ Journey Church
P.O. Box 3283
Burleson, TX 76097

(checks can be earmarked "Wells family support" or something similar)

Hermitage

A recent article in Discipleship Journal, titled “Drawn to the Desert,” caught my attention. Given the desert/wilderness theme that has been running through my head lately, the first line of this article had me hooked:

In my experience, when most Christians hear the words wilderness or desert in relation to their lives with God, thoughts of trials and testing come to mind.

What’s the purpose of desert/wilderness wandering? For Abraham it was the difficult path to discover his calling, for the Israelites it came as a consequence of their lack of faith, and for Jesus it allowed a time of testing. But for the Desert Fathers and Mothers; for the Monastics, going to the desert meant something different entirely.

In her article, Christy Tennant describes a time of spiritual desert in her life. “I felt empty, guilty, and hopeless in my attempts to be a living sacrifice…” In an attempt to reconnect with God and perhaps identify the source of her dry season, she set aside a morning to for solitude and prayer.

Tennant says that as she began reading she felt compelled to spend time in Song of Songs and to her surprise began to suspect that the purpose and cause of this season of desert was not the result of sin, or a period of trail to lead to greater growth and maturity – the Lord had called her to the desert to be alone with her.

He led me into the wilderness to clarify who I am in His eyes. He drew me to the desert so He could tell me how he feels about me. And he did.

The desert mystics retreated to this solitary – apparently barren – landscape and found instead the beautiful sound of silence, the lack of distractions, a chance to be alone with God.

Perhaps when we find ourselves in a desert season we should take time to speak with the Lord – even if it seems strange and foreign at first. Listen for stillness. It may be that the Lord wants to remind us that we were fearfully and wonderfully made. Maybe we’ve bought into the lie that we are filthy worms long enough and God wants to remind us that we were created in His image, that he chose us and called us. It could be that we’ve forgotten that Jesus said, “I no longer call you servants…I have called you friends.”

Then again, it may be that once we’ve waited out the wind, the earthquake and the fire the Lord will ask us, “What are you doing here?” And we’ll find ourselves being sent back to civilization, finally aware that we wandered out into the wilderness without being invited! But, hey…at least at that point you’ve been reassured of your mission.

Maybe we are called to the desert to learn how to pray in the first place. I don’t exactly come from a faith tradition that values hermits and monks living alone or in small cloisters in the desert. In fact more often than not monasteries are disdained as the ultimate symbol of selfishness and laziness. Over the past few years, I’ve come to a different understanding.

Many monasteries are open as a refuge to weary travelers. Many serve the poor. All are places of prayer. You see, here in America and in my faith tradition we apparently have a very limited view of what it means to serve and minister to others. We talk a lot about prayer and how powerful it is, how important and effective it is, how necessary a ministry…but someone dedicates their life to prayer and we call them selfish and uncommitted! So, do we think prayer is ministry or not?

Perhaps we are called to the desert to learn to do more than just talk to or at God, but rather to cultivate a listening heart that actually waits for a response. How often do we sit down to pray, through up a string of unending questions and requests and then when we finally have to stop talking long enough to take a breath, we look around and…Amen, peace I’m out.

We don’t have to be in solitude to pray, we don’t have to be in the desert to listen, but perhaps that’s a good place to learn. You don’t learn how to drive by getting into a car and immediately merging into rush hour traffic – but once you learn how to drive, you realize rush hour is just a really long parking lot, no big deal.

Maybe I’ve had way too small a view of the desert.

...Into the Wilderness

Remember the Normandy scene from Saving Private Ryan when the gates on the US transport ships were lowered and chaos erupted in an instant? Sometimes reality comes crashing in and people find themselves in the midst of an incredible trial with no warning or preparation.

Rookies in the NFL often talk about how much faster the game is compared to college. For those who make it and become a star, there is this magical moment – if you are an avid fan you can almost tell when it happens – when the game suddenly slows down. An event which yesterday, or even five minutes ago, was a blur of insanity and pain suddenly falls out of warp speed and operates in normal time or perhaps even slow motion. With the exception of freshman phenoms like LT or Adrian Peterson, everyone experiences this acclimation process – some go through it quickly and with ease while for others the transition is painstakingly slow, or never completes at all.

When I was in 6^th grade my math class was held in the room where 8^th grade Algebra met during the previous hour. I remember one day toward the end of the year I walked in and the Algebra teacher’s class notes were still up on the chalk board…yes we had chalk boards, with real chalk.

I looked at those unholy scribbles (letters or numbers people, choose one!) and knew that I would never comprehend that subject. There was no way that those ridiculous equations actually meant anything intelligible.

The next year I took pre-Algebra and the following year there I was…and it was easy! By easy, I of course mean that I hated it and never really got most of it, but I was able to pass my tests and move on. Yet looking ahead at the material, prior to being prepared it had seemed impossible.

Sometimes it is precisely the lack of preparation that makes a feat accomplishable. There have been times when I was hunting or camping that I came upon a difficult terrain at night. Not having a clue at all what I was trying to get over, across or through, I just trudged ahead and made it. When I returned in the light of day I could plainly see that there was no possible way to get through…I certainly wasn’t going to try to return the way I came, how could I? Yet the night before, not realizing it was impossible, I’d managed to cross with only minor difficulties (which suggests that perhaps we’re capable of much more than we realize).

When I think about the trials we face, these metaphors are somewhat helpful. In my previous post I talked about the difficulty of leaving the comfort of home for the wilderness only to turn around and find yourself leaving the comfort of the wilderness for the desert…so what’s next?

Sometimes we are blessed to go through the wilderness before the desert because we have an opportunity to begin getting acclimated or prepared rather than being thrown straight into chaos. The misery of Texas football two-a-days was somewhat less horrible for me and some others in our small town because we spent our summers in the hayfield instead of the air-conditioning. Those who went straight from (as our coaches would say) cartoons and Kool-Aid to 100 degrees and nearly 100% humidity had it pretty rough for the first couple weeks.

So I bless God for our time in the wilderness – it prepared us for the desert.

I mentioned before that when you enter the desert you have two basic choices for survival. The first is to find an oasis, which represents a place of rest and refreshment in the midst of the barren terrain. A blog shared with friends; a coffee shop where the barista knows your drink order; a new friend who enjoys hot wings and will allow discussion of the Dallas Cowboys in the midst of Black and Gold country…any of these can be an oasis.

Secondly, if there is no oasis, or if you just don’t know where to look, or even if you have managed to find one, you may need to discover or be discovered by Bedouins. Bedouins are native to the desert, they’ve learned to make their home in an environment that seems uninhabitable to outsiders…and if they don’t kill you, they can mean salvation! Your desert may come from moving into a new geographical location or it can be a purely spiritual desert, right at home. Either way, you will be blessed if you find people who understand this foreign terrain.

Locals who know the great places to eat, the great places to fish and the great places to launch your kayak that is currently sitting unused in the garage; people who can point out the things they love about their home turf can help you cultivate an appreciation for the landscape.

If your desert is spiritual it may be just as difficult to find your Bedouins. Even though you may be surrounded by people you’ve known for years, you may have no idea who’s been in the spiritual desert where you find yourself pitching your tent. But, trust me, they’re there. You just have to stay alert.

But there is another option besides dying in the desert that I wasn’t even thinking about until I read an article in Discipleship Journal – finding a hermitage or monastery. I’ll say more about that, and elaborate on another possible reason for desert/wilderness experiences in my next post.