“So I am going to attract her;
       I will lead her into the desert
       and speak tenderly to her. 
  There I will give her back her vineyards,
       and I will make the Valley of Trouble a door of hope.
    There she will respond as when she was young,
       as when she came out of Egypt.” (Hosea 2:14-15)

I’ve never been like one of those people stranded in the desert. It’s almost a movie cliche that you see someone struggling across the desert, almost dead on their feet, barely putting one foot in front of the other in stearch of water and a way out of the desert. I do know a thing about being in the wilderness.

A wilderness is the place where you have to be stripped of everything else to find out what really matters. Sometimes, you literally lose everything. Sometimes, everything else loses its luster. Those people you counted on suddenly can’t be found. That dream you were sure would see you through has vanished like a mirage.

The desert is where you feel alone and forsaken. It’s where you feel like nothing is ever going to change or get better, that all you’ll ever see wherever you look is more of the same, hot sun and sand. The same job, the same rut.

The desert is also where God speaks tenderly to you. Some of the most precious lessons He will teach you will come from the desert. It’s where He will draw nearest to you, where you will be able to feel His heartbeat as He holds you close.

Don’t despise the gifts from the wilderness. The desert doesn’t last forever, but what you learn from it will. The God who gets you through the arid places will be the God who leads you beside still waters and through the valley of the deepest darkness. He’s the One who leads you to your enemies’ table and, eventually, to His own house where you will dwell forever.

If you’re in the desert, know that God is speaking to you words of comfort and hope and peace. Know that regardless of your location or your scenery, there is always one constant, one True North. God will be faithful to get you through, to walk with you through it, and to bring you out with precious promises you couldn’t have gotten any other way.

Then you will know it was all worth every minute of it.