The Erama and Me...

Your friendly Adventure Guide here...

I have decided to outsource this blog for several reasons.

The first being it is much easier to blog on a blog site than Facebook. The second being that not everything I write will be made completely and totally public. The third being is that I really like Blogger. With my defense of outsourcing, I will now get down to business.

I was in Church yesterday where I do believe God was speaking to me. (*No, I'm not hearing voices nor do I have in my possesion a God-phone, just the message and His word hit home. Hard.) The pastor was preaching on the first part of Mark- the story and life of John the Baptizer. He informed the congregation that the Greek word for wilderness is erama. Now, those of you who have read the basics of the Wasteland Theology know that wilderness and wasteland are interchangeable and dependent on the idea that this season or 40 years is like that of the Israelites.

I really liked that word. Erama. Say it with me, 'Erama.' It just sounds cool and somehow makes the whole thing about being in a searing hot desert full of sand and bugs sound nicer. I equate it with when people say they can't do something and you instead tell them of things they can do without ever really agreeing with them- which you did though.

So the Israelites were in the erama, as would be John the Baptizer. And the whole point of John camping out there in the wilderness was this: it was a return to closeness with God. Seriously. The whole point just floored me and you know cue the lightbulb over my head. It never occured that being out here in the Wasteland was all about returning to the closeness I once had with God. Apparently when God's people were in the desert that is where God was directly with them. He was there-there. He was in their faces, in their lives, providing for them, punishing them, loving them as close as He could be. When John the Baptist came into the world and returned to that place, he was informing God's people that it was time to return to the closeness they once shared in the wilderness. And how much closer can you get to God than being in the presence of His Son, Jesus?

It hit me that this time is a time to return to being in God's presence. I just thought that not working in the church anymore would be about the furthest I could get from God.

EH! WRONG!

I think it is a time to return to remembering how present He is in my life. I am coming to some hard and scary truths about reality and Doubt, well stupid crook, is trying to rob me everywhere I turn. Funny thing is- the moment the scary thoughts come creepin' in, God's there proving Himself faithful...again. I wonder if God shakes His head at me in the attitude of, 'Come on, haven't we been here before? I am just that great and big.' I'd be shaking my head at me.

The fact for this Wasteland Girl is this- God is close.

I went to a concert last night and they sang this song, Breath of Heaven. (*This song had me in tears. I was in choir at my first school for a lot of years and this song was a standard for us every Christmas. It brought me around to the memories of my choir director, an amazing talented teacher named Mr. Morkert. I heard that song and thought of what he taught me and how much I missed learning from him. And that was just bitter and sweet...) The whole song is about Mary's life and her insecurities about being the mother of the Christ-child. It's also about the closeness of God- His very breath upon her. Writing about it is making me chill...it's powerful. Mary returned to the Wasteland. She was younger than me, younger than most teens I know, and she was walking in this place where she had to be full of doubts and heart breaks and frustration. She was full of all this and yet full of the presence of God. The breath within her was in some part Him, too.

I am in the Wasteland and God is not further away-He is even closer than before.

Take that, Doubt.

~Wasteland Adventure Girl Who Now Loves Christmas Music