The roundabout way of the wilderness

God led [the Israelites] by the roundabout way of the wilderness…

 Exodus 13:18a

Yesterday I got lost trying to find the grocery store.  What should have taken ten minutes to find ended up taking an hour and twenty.  The thing is, I thought I knew where I was going.  I typed the address of the store into my phone and set off on my way.  When it was clear that the grocery store wasn’t going to magically pop up in the direction I was heading, I figured that I could find my way without checking my phone.  A few turns and a little more time was all I needed.  I kept thinking that I would see a familiar street and I could find my way without checking my phone.  On the drive, I saw parts of Durham that I haven’t seen yet.  I passed lovely houses on tree-lined streets and noticed some grand old churches.  There was some frustration, but also a great deal of beauty in my journey.

I eventually checked my phone, located the store, and found my way home.  One block from my apartment, I noticed the cause of my dilemma.  Durham has both a Chapel Hill Street and a Chapel Hill Road, and they intersect.  I took the wrong one, which set me on the path of getting lost and wandering to the store in a roundabout way. 

Getting lost is something that our culture is loathe to do.  We have smart phones and navigation systems so that we don’t ever have to do what I did last night.  I could have checked my phone right away and found my destination much more quickly, but it can be good to take some extra time and get from point A to point B in another way.

When the Israelites were released from slavery, God “led them by the roundabout way of the wilderness” to reach the Promised Land some 40 years later.  In Scripture, the wilderness is a place of learning, growth, trial, and formation.  It is a place where it is easy to get lost.  Nothing looks familiar, and everything is different than you expected.  But the wilderness can also be a place of great beauty.  It depends on your perspective. 

All of us get lost in the wilderness sometimes.  It might be the physical wilderness, or it could be the wilderness of losing your job or a central part of your identity, the death of someone you love, the diagnosis of a chronic illness, or the loss of anything in your life that once seemed so certain but is now tenuous at best. 

I am coming to realize that the problem is not actually being lost in the wilderness.  The problem is that we so often fight being in the wilderness, trying desperately to hold onto what has vanished from our lives, or sink into despair, convinced that we will always stay in the wilderness. 

When God led the Israelites in the wilderness, the journey took a long time and was full of missteps as well as surprising discoveries.  To the Israelites, it was uncertain, exhausting, and probably frightening at times.  But their roundabout journey in the wilderness also taught them about God’s faithfulness and solidified their identity as a people.  The Israelites had to let go of what had worked for them in the past so that they could learn what would work in the future.  They eventually found their way home, and discovered new things along the way. 

What about us?  When we find ourselves in the wilderness, can we let go of what is gone from our lives?  With God’s help, can we open ourselves up to the possibility that, along with loss and uncertainty, the wilderness might also contain beauty, new discoveries, and gifts that we haven’t dreamt of yet?  The wilderness can be a frightening and difficult place, but there might be goodness in the journey through this lonely land, too. 

Perhaps if we stop fighting our sojourns in the wilderness, if we open our hands to release what we have lost, something of beauty and possibility will fill them again.  Perhaps the roundabout way of the wilderness will lead us home in ways that we can’t even imagine right now.  Perhaps.