Biblical literature teaches that we all take seven journeys in life. Which journey are you on?
Two months ago I wrote about our first journey in life – “Welcome to the Garden of Eden.” This journey begins with our birth and ends with us leaving safety and security as we move out into the world and into life, where we earn our bread by the sweat of our brow and suffer pain of birth.
Our second journey is “The Passover Sacrifice,” which we might consider a declaration of independence, moving from slavery and encumbering relations into freedom. But freedom comes with anxiety as we wonder what to do and where to go in life.
Today’s journey – “The Wilderness Journey” – often becomes our longest journey – a trip into the Wilderness, a word that is capitalized because it makes itself a serious journey that may last for a long time.
After The Passover Sacrifice, we rush away from encumbering, confusing and enslaving relationships that held us captive, such as being married to an abusive spouse, slaving over a dead-end job, or addiction to alcohol and drugs. And once we extricate ourselves from these forms of enslavement, we find our freedom, along with a fair amount of fear, because now we must depend on ourselves instead of dysfunctional (although comfortable and known) relationships. Even if our dead-end job pays the bills, we grow increasingly upset with work that never fulfills us. And finding comfort in alcohol and drugs that lift us beyond work-a-day struggles buoy us for a while until we find ourselves curled up in a fetal position at a halfway house.
Freedom comes at a price that involves learning to live with some anxiety and fear – something many of us wish not to experience. Nonetheless, freedom possesses powerful qualities, such as learning how to overcome obstacles in order to achieve what we wish.
That kind of freedom develops once we take our journey into the Wilderness, where we depend only upon ourselves at first, but then often find God, Christ and the Holy Spirit to support us.
In biblical literature, specifically the Book of Exodus, Israelites, seeking freedom from Egyptian slavery, found themselves often wanting to go back to Egypt. Israelites wanted the chance again to eat and drink all they wanted even if it required them to return to slavery. They discovered that becoming free generated fears and obstacles, driving them back to their desire for safety and security at whatever cost.
In the Wilderness, the Israelites, you, and I often wonder if we can survive the stress. We may not realize that learning to handle the stress that freedom creates makes us stronger, more competent, and quite happy with being alive. We only learn this by going through the Wilderness.
If you find yourself in an abusive relationship or unsatisfying job or a dependency on alcohol or drugs, consider the freedom always available to you. Realize that your journey out of dependency includes some losses in order to acquire new gains. Freedom demands that you and I learn new attitudes that help us avoid habits that keep us dependent.
In the Book of Exodus, Israelites needed to learn new lessons, such as shifting their dependence on Egypt to dependence on the God of life. Learning how to depend on a God that no one sees proves to be a challenge for most of us. The alternative, however, of returning to old habits because they feel more comfortable will prove to be worse, because it involves returning to slavery. Maybe your slavery will begin to look less appealing as you acquire the joy of more and more freedom.
If you find yourself in the Wilderness, take a stand today, telling yourself, “I intend to remain on this Wilderness journey until I learn to feel comfortable in my own skin, taking wise risks, overcoming obstacles, and learning how to re-adjust my anxiety and fears.” Just say, “I live in this Wilderness at the moment, but one day I will become free.”
Keep reminding yourself that a fourth journey awaits you – a journey where you can find wonderful guidance. Journey No. 4 will require its own unique set of skill development and challenge, like learning how to be open to wisdom greater than ourselves. More will follow next month.
For now … if you find yourself enslaved to dysfunctional ways to cope with life, then choose to get out of them, knowing all the while that you just decided to journey into the Wilderness, where you will become free and grow closer to becoming the person your loving God made you to be in this life.
Happy trails.
Tom Towns is pastor of First United Methodist Church in Cortez.
