The Sahara ! What a truely amazing desert. Such beauty such depth. I’d worked in a few deserts like Namib and Kalahari and even travelled through a few like Afghanistan’s cold Murgab desert, but this was truly vast … and constantly changing. Every day was different.
When you are going through your own barren ‘desert’ experience – and it’ll come sometime. That’s how life is. Then take comfort – all the Old Testament heroes from Moses to Elijah had their time in the desert. And entry into your own wilderness experience can sometimes be as dramatic as entry into the Sahara.
Tired of life in England I decided to drive down Africa across the Sahara. I needed to see Africa again. It was in my blood. I bought an old Series 3 Landrover (4X4) – kitted it out myself with fridge, stove, running water, roof tent, etc. Every night after work I parked in the street in front of our house in St Albans. I often met people who stopped for a chat. Most of them thought I was off my head. Then we sold most of what we had, rented the house, packed up and off we went.
Gillian came with me. I don’t think she really like it. She was used to home comforts – it was tough for her. Once she even wanted to wash her hair in the middle of the Sahara when we were trying to conserve water. It was really my fault as I’d grown up on a farm in Africa and worked in the bush so was used to rough living, whereas she’d grown up in a small terraced house in Luton.
When you’re going through the desert and times are tough – you have a choice. You either despair and give-up and blame God or you press-on in the hope and knowledge that He is with you – every step of the way. For He said to us … “I will never leave nor forsake you”
As tough as it may seem – He will provide your every need. Even with all the grumbling and doubts – can you imagine the amazing lifestyle for the Israelites with Moses? Clothing that never wore out, accommodation under starry desert skies, perfect weather every day, food that literally falls from heaven – and best of all – being permanently under God’s guidance and protection?
Yet they were still dissatisfied and in rebellion. The Israelites were led by their feelings and emotions. They lost sight of the long-term blessings their heavenly Father had in store for them. Let us learn from their mistakes.
Perhaps you are experiencing the pain of brokenness and the travail of your own wilderness experience. Perhaps you’re ill, lost a loved one or your job? .. or just going through a very tough situation. Maybe you feel the potter works His clay with hands that are just a little too rough at times. Be encouraged. King David went through it, so did Paul. We all will at some point. For Moses it lasted for 40 years.
God later revealed to me that this trip I had done through the Sahara desert in those pagan BC days, had many spiritual lessons for me and that it was all part of His big Master Plan.
How was I to know at the time that it was also training for my future business in tourism and African safaris that would also be Christian based. If you’d told me then where I would be today I would have called for the men in white coats to come in little vans with padded interiors to come and collect you.
The parallels and interchangeable maxims from that experience enabled me many years later to cope with the harshness of my own Christian wilderness experience. May those same parallels here minister the same hope and encouragement to you when you go through your own desert experience.
After crossing over the steep Atlas Mountains out of Morocco, entry into the Algerian desert of North Africa is sudden. Heading due south the harsh barrenness of this sea of blazing desert sand is a shock. Trepidation quickly turns to fear. And the deeper the penetration into the desert, the more doubts crowd into your mind.
It was only Gillian and I – stepping over the edge alone – into nothingness, away from everyday security and civilisation’s comforting familiarities. Responsibility felt heavy on my shoulders. Doubts about unpreparedness, personal inadequacies, and the lack of self-confidence cloud clear thinking, quickly followed by fear mixed with loneliness. You feel so very alone.
There are two standard reactions to this fear of the immense unknown, it is either timidity, bordering on paralysis, or hard aggressive driving with lots of 4-wheel drive gear work. I will face it and get through whatever it takes. Striving and pushing oneself and the vehicle to the limits. Day after day the sun never lets up and the dust is aggravating and there seems to be no end in sight.
The predominant concern is inevitably with oneself as the further away from civilisation we go the more aware of how little in control of our situation we are. We’re driving in the faith that we’ll make it – and because there’s no alternative.
Slowly almost imperceptibly changes become apparent. You and the Landrover now flow with the changing desert patterns. Life becomes relaxed and you take joy in your circumstances.
You are starting to let your “self” go. The once harsh and cruel environment now seems to take on a new, raw kind of beauty. The fear, once uppermost in your mind, now subsides. Admittedly to only just below the surface, but it no longer dominates.
You realise you have submitted to the awesome desert. You have a growing respect that brings a comforting bond. Slowly underneath the once lifeless landscape, you become aware of an immense latent but unseen power. There is a desert life-force so powerful it’s humbling and it’s always with us.
There are tremendous blessings if we can only see them during our time in the wilderness. There’s the sparkling sun reflecting off the sand in the early afternoon and the sharp crispness of the bitter cold nights.
The awesome beauty of deep red African sunsets over dark and rugged mountain ranges carved into giant cathedrals through time. The intricate detail of patterns on small pebbles rounded, etched and eroded by ages of sand polishing.
The overwhelming silence that settles and rings in your ears in the sheer vastness of nothing after a long day driving. The feeling of exaggerated relief and the security of palm trees at a well nobody can remember how many centuries old. Precarious tracks weaving through timeless gorges where the sun never shines and the sand is always cold.
Now, with submission to the desert’s authority, comes a peace that the controlling influence truly is sovereign. However, with complacency comes vulnerability. In the sudden crisis of a breakdown, all the enjoyment and beauty reverts immediately to insecurity, doubt and anger. Fear rises to hit you in the face like a fist. Now even the sand becomes hateful. You never realised before what a curse it was. Now it’s in your boots, your sleeping bag, even your food and some places too uncomfortable to mention. How on earth did I end up here ?
And the real implications of a breakdown in the desert become terrifying. Here there is no SOS help-line or mobile cell phone connection. You are totally on your own. Really alone.
One night I’d forgotten to switch the fridge from battery to gas and by morning it was flat. We couldn’t start. It was two days, mostly spent on a high sand dune with binoculars looking for another vehicle, before help arrived. It was a crew of Algerian drillers from an oil well.
No matter what happens or what one must endure, once the crisis is past the emotions all reverse again. We are humbled with the shame of how fickle and dependant on circumstances our emotions really are.
Then there is the adrenalin bursting thrill of highly dangerous fast driving over long flat desert plains, through shimmering mirages, locked into the deep ruts of vehicles long since past. What a pleasure this time is.
Progress through the desert is in the strange comfort of following invisible people who have all been through this before. Are these early travellers examples of hope to us – or are we just travelling in faith ?
You notice the cleanliness of the desert. The air is sweet to breathe and the crystal stars at night are only just out of reach. A deep cut on my hand in this pollution free atmosphere recuperates so rapidly that I can almost watch it healing.
Periodically we pass abandoned car and truck bodies, frame and chassis standing stark and naked in moistureless air. Rust free but dead. Shiny clean monuments to those who lost hope and gave up the struggle. The endless sand first polishes, then slowly eats them … or buries them. The desert is a continuous purification process; of itself and everything in it.
One day, coming over a steep rise, we were suddenly confronted by a Tureg sitting on his camel in the middle of the track. It was quite a shock seeing him there, his long flowing blue robes and turban with rifle over his shoulder and large curved dagger in his belt. We slowly came to a halt. I admit I was nervous. But he only wanted water. We gave him all he asked for. He was a million miles from anywhere. He certainly needed it.
Direction finding was often haphazard. Long before GPS. Sometimes marker oil drums a few miles apart are an easy guide through the desert. Perhaps deeper tracks seem fresher and more likely indicators than the many others now slowly filling with sand. Otherwise a long slow grind in low ratio to the top of a sand dune for direction finding with binoculars is the only alternative. The learning curve is sharp but you know if you look long enough there is always a sign to guide you.
One day, following the regular morning wake up rituals and pre-takeoff check list, you suddenly notice tiny trees – well shurbs . The excitement of these little trees ! There are still Arabs and camels and goats but there are shrubs and the odd stunted tree. The transition out of the desert has been so gradual that you haven’t noticed. You’re through !
Wise new eyes give new perceptions and values. You’re now strong with the deep awareness of just how blessed you are to have gone through the desert. The trials and testing have passed. Like the rainbow after the storm, it’s as though a promise has been fulfilled beyond your wildest expectations.
As the Landrover needs to be carefully prepared, old and worn parts replaced, so too does clay need to be stretched and worked with water before it becomes pliable enough to be shaped by the potter. The wilderness experience together with the Holy Spirit now shapes and moulds us according to His will.
Entry into your wilderness experience can be as dramatic as entry into the Sahara desert. Only now it’s not the Landrover that carries you through – it’s God’s love. The fuel is grace, the tank is bottomless and an oasis is a refreshing reminder of His promises.
The Holy Spirit is your compass, the truth your direction and with nothing to fear now you’re never alone. This time the Word is your food and faith your water. Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible and receives the impossible.
Knowing what’s on the other side – the arid wilderness should be faced with hope and joy. In this way mighty warriors are disciplined to emerge soul washed patient and loving, humble in wisdom and obedience with the sweet smell of Jesus.
The fruit of the potter is the new clay vessel – tried and tested to be used for His purposes. It may be hard to remember in the wilderness, but draw comfort from the knowledge that those He chose to be used for the noblest of purposes He shapes with the greatest care.
Moses saw the pain of his people. He saw the bondage and the injustice. His heart was angry and decided he would do something. He took matters into his own hands. The result was murder. The motive was right, but the action was wrong. He went horizontal instead of vertical with God.
Moses fled to the desert, where God prepared this man who would ultimately be the deliverer of a nation. But it took 40 years of preparation before God determined Moses was ready. He was a sheepherder. It was during the mundane activity of work that God called on him to be a deliverer.
Moses was like a lot of enthusiastic Christian believers who seek to solve a spiritual problem with a fleshly answer. The greatest danger to the Christian believer in the workplace is his greatest strength – his business acumen and expertise to get things done. This self-reliance can become our greatest weakness when it comes to moving in the spiritual realm.
We’re taught to be problem solvers. But, like Moses, if our enthusiasm and passion are not harnessed by the power of the Holy Spirit, we will fail miserably. Peter had to learn this lesson too. His enthusiasm got him into a lot of trouble. But God was patient, just as He is patient with each of us.
After crossing the Sahara I welcomed the clammy humidity and wild jungle of central Africa. Life was full and beautiful. There seemed an abundance of food and fresh fruit. Huge trees that grew right up into the sky. So tall they blocked out the sun. And colour. Flowers, and birds and people in bright clothes and swinging African music with a heartbeat rooted in the earth. We were through.
Sometimes He must put us in the desert for a time in order to season us so that Christ is allowed to reign supreme in the process. Before you act, pray and seek the mind of Christ until you know it is God behind the action. You may save yourself a trip to the desert.
Drachir Noxid 