Why a Desert?

The Desert. It's all around us. Haven't you seen it? It's what we call the world we live in. Oh, sure, it looks nice and pretty from the outside. Well, a lot of it does anyways. On the other hand, a lot of it is pretty grungy too. (And not in a cool hip hop kinda way). But when you get down to the meat of it... all that's left is a desolate land that no man can live off of. For the most part. That is what we are forced to live with daily.

Rick McKinney refers to it as the "Beautiful Mess". An oxymoron for sure. He opens his book with an analogy of our world as a junk yard or dump yard. Yet the relationships are built there as it is turned into a playground or treasure hunt for children, as well as fathers and sons. The fact that it's a mess is what makes it all so beautiful. The beauty is found in the small things that seem so meaningless.

Better yet - we are that mess. God chooses to see the beauty that He has hand-crafted in us. Besides, He chose to put that beauty there in the first place. And He does everything to wear away the sand that has caulked its hard shell onto our once tender hearts and lives. It's that very sand that puts thoughts in our head that we are the opposite of what we were indeed made to be: beautiful, wonderful, accomplished, successful, magnificent, lovable, accepted...

It's what I've referred to here as the sprout in the desert.

I hope that I live my life in such a way that I am that sprout to others. The one that gives hope in a desolate land full of nothing but dry heat that leaves people wanting. May I be one of the few who shoot from the ground with a hope that there must be a wealth of springs underneath. One to believe and live like i was crafted to be. Started from a seed long ago, a sprout that has forced its way through the cement-like earth. Through the lies we are so susceptible to and believe too easily. But more importantly... a mere sign, a landmark, for the Ever-flowing, Life-Giving Spring of Life that flows underneath. Without It and the Sun, nothing can exist.

So let my life be. That I may live my life in such a way that whoever finds me also finds God, and whoever is looking for me must find God first.