One of my favorite places in the world is a 260,000-acre, remote, and rugged, roadless area in the Idaho St. Joe and Clearwater National Forests known as the Mallard Larkins Wilderness area.
I was very fortunate to have a family who enjoyed camping, hiking, ski mountaineering, and climbing as our recreation time together.
This wilderness area is known for its high-mountain lakes, dense forests, and rocky terrain. It serves as a critical wildlife corridor and a popular, challenging destination for non-motorized hiking, backpacking, and hunting.
Each year, my Dad and I would spend a long weekend climbing to the summit of Snow Peak, deep within this pristine wilderness area.
I cannot imagine what this might look like if I climbed this alone. All alone.
When the sun goes down, it is dark. I mean really dark. The stars look so close, like you could reach and touch them. The forest comes alive at night. In the distance, we would often hear wolves howling. Coyotes for sure.
One year, we were quite certain that we heard a cougar screaming.
Now mind you, we were hiking and climbing, so what we had, we carried on our backs. Very simple outdoor living for sure.
Being alone in this wilderness would take a different kind of mindset.
What must Jesus have been going through during his 40 days and 40 nights in his wilderness?
He fasted and was hungry.
The Devil kept tempting him. Tormenting him. Challenging him. Trying to make him even doubt his father. He even tried to buy Jesus’s devotion.
But Jesus didn’t give in despite being in this wild place, hungry, and alone. His Wilderness.
So do each of us have a Wilderness of our own that we have experienced or are currently experiencing?
I believe we are all currently experiencing some type of wilderness.
One thought I had is that our personal wilderness is simply the world that we are all trying to navigate these days.
It seems to me that our shared wilderness experience has become our daily realities and in those realities, life has become pretty unpredictable and sometimes unforgiving.
I recently read this quote from Lee Camp. It reads, “Ninety-nine percent of us are good hearted people who respect others and want peace. The other one percent rule the world and tell us we’re at war.”
This made me ponder why I am seeing more and more blandness in the world around me. Cars and trucks painted in muted colors. News agencies afraid to print or report the truth, resulting in flat stories.
Mindsets being driven by immoral decisions with real life and death outcomes. Callus reactions to human suffering.
Mediocre expectations for people to live by leaving them with flat affects.
This is not exactly the kind of wilderness Christ experienced, but is it a modern version.
Are we being tempted every day to go with the flow, not cause waves, not make a spectacle of ourselves in order to fit into societies mediocrity?
Is the devil alive and well and tempting us as we walk in this Wilderness? I believe so.
So where does this leave us?
First know this, that even though we may be in this time of great tribulation and possibly lost in our wilderness, we are never alone. God is always with his faithful people. He will never abandon us, even when it looks so bleak and hopeless.
God also empowers us through our baptisms, as he did his son. Jesus went into the wilderness after his baptism, alone and in that wilderness he had the power over the devil in God’s name. We also have that power through our baptism. That is strength.
We all face temptations every day. Some temptations are smaller than others. Some have greater consequences than others, but they are still temptations.
It is our faith in God that allows us to navigate through our own wilderness without falling into the devil's hands.
For the next several weeks, we asked during Lent to journey with Jesus as he makes his way to the cross and the resurrection.
It is a time meant to be uncomfortable, edgy, lonely, a little depressing, a lot reflective, a time spent in examination of one's self, a time of hunger, a time of checking in with God to see how we are managing our own journey through our own wildernesses.
It is a time when we should all feel the weight of the cross on our shoulders as we meditate and pray more, read the scriptures daily, perhaps fast one day a week, volunteer outside of our comfort zone.
It is a time for us to look at our own brokenness and the new life we have through grace and love through Christ.
Lent is a helpful path toward becoming aware of our need for God’s love and to reassess how we live out that love.
Lent is ultimately relational. It is a season when we intentionally consider what actions might allow us to draw nearer to God and what actions and attitudes might get in the way.
It is a time of repentance, reflection, and drawing nearer to God.
I pray that each one of us has a lent filled with a deepened faith and closer relationship with God.
Amen