When You Find Yourself In The Desert

Hot dry sand sifts between my toes dusty and dirty are my feet as it pours into my sandals. A cool replenishing bath- cold water over my parched lips and tongue an oasis in this place of death and dying.

I feel like every part of me that was alive and vibrant is shriveling up like everything around me. Nothing can survive this barren arid place. And still, my feet plod on and on. I won't turn back. I won't submit to the call.

One foot in front of the next. Carrying me further and further away from you. From life itself, from your life-giving water.

The more I choose to walk on the more my heart turns to stone and bitterness fills my mouth. My soul peels and cracks making me a little less the person I was.

Worldly pleasures- a mirage of my own making. In this desert self-reliance, independence, self-importance goad me on in this place of death.

Depression and bitterness are my rewards. Your voice is almost faded now. A dull hum almost hidden by the droning of my heart beating in my ears from the sun burning into my head.

Moments of semi-clarity come when I pause this endless walk and then a gentle breeze that tickles past my ear calling me to come back, come home. To forsake the journey and return to a place of living water. To green lush fields. Life all around. But I brush it away. Like a buzzing fly that circles my head and my heart turns harder as I turn and walk away.

...Springs will gush forth in the wilderness, and streams will water the wasteland. The parched ground will become a pool and springs of water will satisfy the thirsty land. Marsh grass and reeds and rushes will flourish where desert jackals once lived. Isaiah 35:6-7 (NLT)

Only He can turn your arid wastelands into lush plains again. Return to Him, fall into His arms and
soak in His presence, let Him fill the cracked and peeling places. Let Him restore what has been lost, and fill your heart like a deep well. Come to Him and let the living water refresh you, drink it in and be immersed- let it wash away the desert sand, the sweat and tears, the heat and be made whole again- maybe not who you were but something new and beautiful. Come to Him.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28 (NIV)

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