Into the Desert: Week 5 | Deeper Still

Week 5 | deeper still

“I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth...I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
— Isaiah 43:19

Even as the desert tests and challenges, this harsh landscape reminds those who wander its reaches that God is moving in extraordinary ways - in places and manners we are unable to predict.

Against the stark neutrality of the desert's browns and greys are vibrant slashes of rich, red rock. Springing from dusty, monotonous sage green are pops of neon blossoms all the more striking for their inauspicious backdrop. For all of the deathly stillness of the desert, perceptive eyes and willing hearts will see the magnificent movement of life in the rustle of a rare breeze, sprouting under every shifted rock, stirring in the shadows of mountain crevices, and emerging from the most unlikely sources.

In The Wisdom of the Desert, Thomas Merton explains, "What the [Desert] Fathers [and Mothers] sought most of all was their own true self, in Christ... they had to reject completely the false, formal self, fabricated under social compulsion in ‘the world.’ They sought a way to God that was uncharted and freely chosen, not inherited from others who had mapped it out beforehand.

What new life can be revealed when we go deeper into the desert?

// resources

"These are tales of women who walked away from their families, shed their social status, gave away their money...They traveled so deep into the desert that they struck the heart of it, the place where people go to be tested."

"The Desert Mothers and Fathers ... are perhaps the most readily recognizable predecessors of the contemporary spiritual directors. [They] fled to the desert in the third century to live an alternative lifestyle distinct from the empire."

"And there was a new voice... That kept you company As you strode deeper and deeper Into the world..."

// questions for going deeper

  1. Where do you see blossoms of life in the midst of desert experiences? How can you lean into these discoveries and deepen understanding of these gifts?

  2. How can we move as modern "Desert" Christians to challenge ourselves to a deeper faith in line with the example of Abbas, Ammas, and Jesus?

Payton Hoegh