When you look carefully at many of the Godly men of old – men like Jacob, Moses, David, Elijah, Jesus, and Paul – you find that for each of these men, wilderness experiences were very significant in shaping the men they became, and the impact they had.  Although I have been aware of this for a number of years, this recognition had never been more than an observation for much of that time – almost seeming like a weak rationalization for my desire to spend time in the wilderness.

But in recent years I have come to appreciate such experiences, not simply because of the opportunity to be in the wilderness, but because of the unique benefits they provide.  Perhaps the most obvious of these is the opportunity to “unplug” – unplug from the tyranny of a routine that keeps us too busy and distracted to reflect on our lives and consider how God might be leading us to pursue life differently –  unplug from the cacophony of information that bombards us through TV, radio, the internet, email, text messages and cell phones; unplug from the agenda that all of the people around us seem to have for our lives.  In the wilderness, all of this goes away, and we have the chance consider our lives and whether or not they are what we want them to be.

Another thing that happens when we get into the wilderness is that we are able to soak up the beauty and majesty of God’s creation – to have our souls restored in a way that nothing else can do.  God created us to appreciate beauty, and there is no beauty that can fill that need like the beauty of God’s creation.

More recently, I have become aware of an even deeper, much more profound benefit that wilderness has to offer.  To appreciate this, I first had to first understand the truth about what we think of as “normal life” – by which I mean the life we live in civilization.  I have come to see that what we call civilization is simply our attempt to control life and make it conform to our agenda.  We have been very successful and have created the illusion that there is very little beyond our control, whether it be the climate in our homes or the disease that will not kill us.  But in the wilderness, such illusions are shattered very quickly.  The mountain does not care about your weariness, the storm about your comfort, nor the setting sun about your schedule.  A twisted ankle cannot be resolved with a call to 911, nor broken equipment with a trip to the nearest outdoor store.  Suddenly you realize that you are not in control… and this is good.

The reason it is good is because way back in the Garden, when everything went bad, it did so because we mistakenly believed that the best way to pursue life was by following our own agenda – seeking to find life on my terms.  However right this seems at times, sooner or later it will all come crashing down.  Much better to see the reality of the situation, that life is beyond my reach and out of my control.  This brings me to an awareness of my smallness and that I am intensely dependent.  This is essential because only then do I realize that if I am going to find the fullness of life, I will have to do so on God’s terms, according to His agenda.