The One When They Go to the Desert

 I got to be part of the best decade in history - the 90’s.  I had slap bracelets on each wrist and my half-dead (okay, completely dead) Tamagotchi in hand.  I can still picture the day I got my teal Gameboy Color (I still have my lime green Gameboy Advanced SP with Backyard Baseball - thanks early 00’s).  My dad would take me to Blockbuster so pick up VHS tapes.  I mean we were living in a dream world.

I was usually a heavy sleeper.  But sometimes I would wake up in the middle of the night and couldn’t fall back to sleep.  I would go quietly to the living room to watch TV.  My options were infomercials about Zoobooks, Home Shopping Network, or the show that defined the 90’s - Friends.

I loved watching these young adults doing silly things like putting a turkey on their head, dressing as an armadillo for halloween, and sitting in a canoe in their living room.  But years later, I think we’ve all returned to this timeless classic over and over again.

When God speaks a verse over your life, expect BIG things.  When God speaks His own Word over you, not only has He written it, but He’s spoken it.  That’s what He calls a double-portion (see Isaiah 61:7).  He’s not only showing you, but He’s telling you - so that means you better listen.

For years God has been speaking this passage over me:

Therefore I am now going to allure her;

    I will lead her into the wilderness

    and speak tenderly to her.

There I will give her back her vineyards,

    and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.

There she will respond as in the days of her youth,

    as in the day she came up out of Egypt.

-- Hosea 2:14-15

For a while I was just reading verse 15 where all the good things happen. Give me the vineyards so I can make some cab sav, baby! But verse 14 is so key. God allures Israel to the wilderness.

Allure (verb) - to entice by charm or attraction

God attracts Israel to the wilderness; to the desert.  But He doesn’t do it for harm - he does it to “speak tenderly to her.”  

I remember the moment so well. My phone was ringing it - it was my mom.  She was calling to tell me some bad news.  My student loan didn’t go through 2 weeks before my senior year.  I had literally been training to be an architect since age 11.  All of it - was gone in an instant.

My sobs woke the girl in the room next to me.  I remember running to the bathroom to pace and sob.  As I gasped for air, I begged God to explain why me.  He made a way for me to go to school for one more year, but it wasn’t the year I planned.

I was so bitter at God.  It didn’t make sense.  I rebuilt my relationship with God and learned a lot about this season.  But I’m learning now that in that moment God allured me to the desert.

He didn’t do it to harm me.  He did it to lead me to a life to glorify Him, like He did with Israel.  This is why verse 14 is so key.

But after verse 14 comes 15:

There I will give her back her vineyards,

    and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.

There she will respond as in the days of her youth,

    as in the day she came up out of Egypt.

There are 2 things here:

1 - In the desert where God is speaking tenderly to Israel, He restores and transcends.  He doesn’t wait for Israel to go through the desert; He does it in the desert.

2 - Israel responds to God.  Israel goes back to the beginning to their child-like faith - back to the basics.

I’m finally reaching the point of the other side of the desert.  I’m walking on the mountain top in the light of hope instead trucking through the Valley of Achor. The desert wasn’t easy, but He never meant for it to harm me.  He used it to teach me to use my story for His glory.

While my friends I should have graduated with are finishing their architect license exams, I’m in the depths of a big career change.  I’m in the most perfect point in my life and it is so far from where I thought I was heading.

He restored a clear dream of living in His Kingdom and working for His Glory. He has exceeded all expectations when I was in the Valley of Trouble by offering hope.

Through it all, I learned to respond to God like Israel did.  I’ve come back to my child-like faith.  It’s kind of like turning on Friends over and over again after all these years.