The Desert

This time last year my husband and I were in the third week of a three-month long road trip. We began our week in the desert.  In Phoenix, Arizona.  Where it is hot.  Really hot.  And one year ago today, we were crossing the desert from Phoenix to Southern California.

It was a long day.  I didn't take very many pictures because, just to be honest about it, the scenery never really changed.  We spent the day looking at this:

 When we arrived in Southern California, we were greeted by this:

 



It was a long, frustrating day.

The desert can be like that.  Not just the Mohave Desert, but the desert times in our lives.  Those dry, barren times when we feel like we're getting nowhere.

We all face those times.  Even David, the Psalmist, faced these barren times.

"I thirst for You, my flesh yearns for You, in a dry and weary land where there is no water."  (Psalm 63:1b NASB)

David wrote these words in the Judean wilderness, another dry and barren place, much like the Mohave Desert we drove through last summer.

Just as we sometimes do, David experienced a dry period.  How did he deal with it?  The answer is in the first part of that verse.

"O God, You are my God; I shall seek you earnestly."  (Psalm 63:1a NASB)

When, like David, we are experiencing dry, barren periods in our lives, the answer is the same for us as it was for him.

"I shall seek You earnestly."

Seek the Lord.

Seek Him earnestly.

Not half-heartedly.

Because He is the Living Water that satisfies our thirst.

Even in our dry, barren deserts.

"Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips will praise You.  So I will bless You as long as I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name."  (Psalm 63:4 NASB)