Wilderness - a bleak, numbing word that instantly calls to mind a feeling of hopelessness, nothingness, barrenness, and most of all, a sense of powerless ness. There's a reason that the biblical expression "the voice of one crying in the wilderness" has come to mean abject abandonment.
It is in the depths of your life that you will discover the invisible necessity that has brought you here. John O'Donohue
"According to an ancient legend, the word Wilderness didn't conjure up a place of punishment, but rather a place of learning, spiritual growth, understanding, healing, and accomplishment," Sarah Ban Breathnach tells us. "...your experience in the Wilderness was designed to prepare or propel you toward your destiny. Or pry you loose from whatever was keep you from it."
Hard to believe that the Promised Land has a Wilderness in it. Harder yet to believe that we would even create a Wilderness experience for ourselves in order to up level our spiritual experience.
In the writings of John O'donahue, it states that "For millions of years, before you arrived here, the dream of your individuality was carefully prepared." Who dreamed us here? Did we or did God? He goes on to say that, "You were sent to a shape of destiny in which you would be able to express the special gift you bring to the world...Sometimes this gift may involve suffering and pain."
When I think of this last statement, I think we are the ones who come up with the suffering and pain. I really don't think that God planned for us to experience it. Even in the "Promised Land" and some of the experiences I have had, I have interrupted them as "pain" when in truth, they probably weren't pain at all. Maybe they were "resting" periods in my "wilderness" experience. I can look back on my life now and see how I misinterpreted many of my experiences. I just didn't know any better. Now, I do. I forgive myself for my ignorance and it is time to move on. Thank you God.
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