Day Two

In the book Rising Strong, Brene Brown talks about a certification program for those who want to facilitate her work called the Daring Way.  Day Two of the Daring Way is difficult. It is the middle space for the process, and during day two, you are in the dark - the door has closed behind you, and yet you are not yet close enough to the door to which you are heading to see the light. If you want to make it to the goal, you can't skip Day Two.

Day Two is the point of no return, it is the point at which the die is cast.  You are in the dark and there is no turning back.

It's the struggle.  It's the hard work between where we start and where we are going. Nobody wants to be in the dark in-between. The Israelites were in Day Two after they left Egypt and before the reached the Promised Land.  Most of them wanted to turn back - in fact, we often talk in churches about the Back to Egypt committee. Day Two is the wilderness.

The wilderness is the place where our only hope of change comes from the anticipation of where we think we are going. 

In your life, what is your promised land? Are you so afraid of the wilderness that you won't risk it, even with the hope of the promised land? In your church, what is your promised land? Will you risk the dark times, that you can't avoid, to get there?

What promised land is God calling us to reach, even knowing that we have to cross through the wilderness to reach it? Will you trust God enough to hold your hand in the dark while you struggle?

Realizing where we are

Photo credit:  S. Grant Matthews

In a certain Sunday school (not mine), a woman told a story that she relates to the idea of wilderness.  She was riding her horse through the woods.  She lost control of the horse, and he started running.  When she finally got him stopped, and figured out where she was, she realized she didn't know where she was.  She prayed that God would help her to find her way home.  That is wilderness, she said.

I was struck by the idea that she didn't realize she was lost until she realized she was lost.  It's circular reasoning. Even so, it is profound.  If spiritual wilderness can be equated with separation from God, then we may not know we are lost until we slow down and realize we don't know where we are.   It takes a certain amount of self-awareness.

We can't ask God to find us in the wilderness until we realize we are there.  We don't miss God until we realize we've moved away from God.  We can't take any steps to return to God until we admit we need to do so.

I think that might be one of the purposes of spiritual disciplines.  They hep us to recognize that we don't know where we are.  And to ask for God's help.