The Desert of God’s Love

by S. A. Keith

You say there’s a plan and a future for me.

I’m lost in the desert and cannot see.
I try to follow and understand your will.
I have no answers, just wait, be still.

Running away to no avail.

Resisting the desert, God will prevail.
Turning and running is futile at best.
His plan beckons, his promised rest.

His plan of love to draw me close.

The Desert of Love for me He chose.
Vaguely I see my desert gloom.
Repent, rejoice, God’s will to bloom!

God’s Desert of Love, his plan for me.

The Desert of Love, he brings to me.
A journey to shape the void in me.
The Desert of Love, he’ll make me see.

Those words swirled in my mind as I was waking one morning. At the time I
wrote them I was at spiritual peak in my life, an oasis of sorts. I had reached a
place in my spiritual journey to understand, and even appreciate, some of life’s
disappointments, the rejections and the suffering God had brought me through to
get to this point. It was all beginning to make sense. The prayer-poem that
morning was a balm to my heart. I jumped out of bed to write it down so I
wouldn’t forget it.

Four weeks after I prayed those words, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I
didn’t ask God, “Why me?” like I had on many, or most, occasions, but in the
midst of my panic I had a nagging question, “Why now?” “God, why can’t I enjoy

a short time of refreshing, a stay at the oasis? Why must I get back on the desert
trail...again?! What good am I there?” But this time it was different, this time the
desert wasn’t as scary, this time the desert wasn’t as dry, this time I understood
the desert held something I couldn’t learn any other way. Why was my
perspective so different this time? This wasn’t normal. It could only be explained
by God’s Supernatural power!

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It doesn’t matter if you have an ingrown toenail or a herniated disc, once you’ve
developed an ailment the stories of others having the same thing and how to
treat it come out of the woodwork! Cancer is certainly no exception. The first
week of my diagnosis, I remember hearing a woman say that her cancer was a
blessing. “A blessing?!” I thought. “How’s that possible?”

I found her response very annoying. Surely she’s exaggerating!” But that desert
prayer-poem kept nagging at me. Had God given me those words to prepare me
for this? The thought made me shudder and pray, “Lord help me to trust you in
this.”

Why are we always so shocked to hear of someone’s death? We spend so much

time living our lives as if they’ll go on forever here on Earth. The fact of the matter
is we are all on the way to dying. It's odd, but this thought actually gave me
comfort during my cancer treatment, because even if God were to heal me, I will
still eventually die. So why do I hold on so tightly to this life? Then the thought
came to me, we are hard-wired for eternal things, but because of sin, physical
death has interrupted this fact; as a result we desperately attempt to deny death,
to get back what we lost.

Apparently, we are also hardwired to learn important life-lessons in difficult ways

(must be a result of our sinful state). I know in my own life, and countless others
I’ve spoken to, the things that matter, the most difficult situations, have taught
them and me the most about life, God and spiritual matters. In fact, these “life-
lessons” become our teachers to receiving the harvest God intends for our lives
and help us understand what Jesus went through for us. They help us learn to
trust God, so his desires become our desires!

Sadly, our tendency is to respond to sickness and other life trials by thinking God
is out to get us or that he has forsaken us, and as a result we might even turn
away from God and use it as an excuse to explain away our own sinful failures.
“If this hadn’t happened to me, then I could have been successful.” “If this hadn’t
happened, then I would be happy.” “If this hadn’t happened, then life would be
different and I would be different.” “If these things hadn’t happened, then I could
trust God.”

Why does suffering take us by surprise? Where do we get the idea that if we pray
enough and trust enough, then we’ll be free from suffering? It could be a result of
our western entitlement mindset, but it certainly isn’t what the Bible teaches us.

Think of Isaac, whose father held a knife over his head or Joseph who was sold
into slavery. And of course there’s Job who lost everything, his children, his
worldly possessions and his health. What about Steven, and Paul and Peter and
Jesus? Their lives ended in horrific ways, yet why do we expect to not encounter
the same? Is it false teaching or preaching that makes us think this way?

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Maybe, but maybe it’s a remnant memory that God programmed into our hearts
at creation, because life wasn’t supposed to be like this. We were created to live
pain-free, suffer-free, and mourn-free lives, but sin has terribly interrupted our
destiny!

Read Hebrews chapter eleven. The point of this chapter is not how these great
people of faith suffered. The point is they trusted God through their suffering. It
would be grotesque to welcome pain and suffering into our lives, but it is
necessary to expect it. Don’t call it friend, call it teacher. God doesn’t let us suffer
out of cruelty. We suffer because we live on a corrupt planet.

God sent his Son to redeem us from Satan’s death-grip. He has a better plan for
us than we do. While we live here on earth, we can never be totally satisfied. In
fact, don’t get too comfortable here; it is temporary, because for Jesus’ followers
our true home is in heaven with him.

The prayer-poem, I believe, was intended to prepare me for the desert journey of
having cancer. I can now say it was indeed a blessing, because God taught me
to trust him more fully through it. Even though I am now cancer-free, the fact of
the matter is my body is still terminally ill, and so is yours. The good news is
Jesus is coming back in our lifetime! Either he’s coming for us one by one in our
deaths or he’s coming back for his whole church at one time. Are you ready for
his return? Are you ready to trust him, no matter what?

Our trials have purpose. It may feel like a desert, but it is the desert of God’s love.
God uses that desert trail to make us into the people he intended us to be, so we
can reap the harvest of his blessing! The comfort, which Jesus promises, is
partially for here and now, but ultimately God’s children will be fully comforted in
the arms of The Hearer of Cries.

“God will wipe away all our tears and there will be no more death or mourning or
crying or pain.” (Revelation 21:4).

Come Lord Jesus!

Copyright 2006 S.A. Keith - All Rights Reserved

(Article adapted and used by permission from S.A. Keith’s writings, “The
Desert of God’s Love”, and is more fully expanded in “The BE-Attitudes -
How We Can Get Over Ourselves And Live Lives Approved by God”
from http://www.sundayschoolnetwork.com/Bible-4-Life.html)

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