Not knowing what is ahead of us

Imagine walking into a dark room. We will put our hands in front of us, afraid that we will bump into the furniture, or slip on the rug. We walk very slowly and deliberately, knowing that we don't know what lies directly ahead of us.

...making our way into the darkness of the future...This is very much what God calls us to do on this journey of faith we call our lives. 

[excerpted from "The Great Themes of Scripture"-Fr. Richard Rohr]

This is not easy, because everything we are taught in this world says that we can have our pathway illuminated in front of us. This is a very present foundational teaching underscoring our Western civilized world.

Since I was old enough to make my way in this American influenced, capitalistic, free enterprise world,( for me it was in 1972 when I was 18, and moved to Waco to go to work the summer before I went to college at Baylor) I became attached to working on doing everything to assure that my way ahead would be "well lit". 

I obtained both technical and academic knowledge. 

I achieved both undergraduate and graduate degrees. I worked for the key employers at jobs that would assure that I was well experienced in what I needed to know in order to succeed. 

I armed myself with substantial fund balances, and implemented sound investment strategies. 

I associated myself with those who could assist me in achieving the goals and objectives of a well structured, managed life. I even sought a wife who was stable and well disciplined! 

Don't get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with any of these things...and don't misread me-I made numerous mistakes and got myself involved in sinful habits. I was not focused on living as sin-less as I could. 

But even that --striving to be sinless--could be a fallacy because it could be that I had this assumption that-- to procure the favor of the great Creator, the Eternal Being... I needed to be good, to walk the line and follow the rules, so that I would be a loyal child of His, and thereby achieve favor as a child of the Kingdom--one of the children of light.

(Unfortunately, I didn't, so I will never know if that strategy would have worked for me.)

But that is just it...

we want to KNOW--and we want to rest assured that we are going where, how and for the right reasons we seek to be going along in life.

Faith, though, is the security to be insecure.

Our trust is in The Father, and not in our own cleverness. It is not in our ingenuity, our degrees, our planning, our personality, our social status, our money, our financial security.

Faith is like walking, living, existing--in the desert. Rohr says the desert teaches us.

It is the place where all the false names for God are taken away from us.

The desert is where the storehouse is always empty.

It is the place where we learn total dependence on the provision and the presence of The Lord. It is the place where David mused--"Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." There are no signal flares, no lampposts, in the desert.

Every day begins with a new opportunity for learning our complete dependence on Him, minute by minute.

What happens when we realize we are abiding in the desert? We will constantly experience a new name for the Lord, just like the ancient Hebrews, the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did when they were escaping the comforts and the provision that accompanied their imprisonment of Egypt.----[Just like mother Hagar did when she ran away from the scorn and cruelty of Sarai...that time it was El Roi--the God who sees me.]

Isn't it interesting that our reality is so much like the ancient desert analogy? So that sometimes, we, like the band of followers of Moses, who followed God, we too often lose the connection with God's eternal Word, the Holy Spirit of Christ, and lapse into the desiring the comforts and false security of our past imprisonments.

God always has a new face, a new name. When we are focused on nothing but seeking His direction, He daily, even minute by minute provides a fresh Word to illuminate our path.

In fact, He IS the Word, Himself. ( John 1:1) He is the Light for our Path.

That must become comfort enough as we enter into yet another desert, another dark room where we are not sure our next steps will lead us. This faith fact is true of this day ahead...for me, and for you.