Wonder in the Wilderness

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Does the wilderness feel like a waste? 

A season you just want to escape as soon as possible? Wasteland and wilderness are often interchangeable, because the wilderness can feel just like that: a waste. A wasted season. A detour from what we thought God had planned. But what if those empty stretches are actually where God does his deepest work? 

In some ways, this is Part 3 of a series on identity and wilderness. In Part 1 titled, The Art of Being Yourself, we explored the baptism of Jesus—the inauguration that kickstarted his public ministry and established him as the Beloved Son of God with whom God is pleased.

In Part 2 titled, Testing 1, 2, 3, we followed Jesus into the wilderness. With his identity established, he didn’t start his ministry with a spectacular miracle or inspirational TED Talk. He started in isolation led by the Spirit of God into a period of temptation and testing. It seems like bad timing—like the opening band introducing the headliner, only for the main act to walk off stage and disappear into a forest.

But what if there was something meaningful there? What if the wilderness isn’t a waste? What if the wilderness isn’t just a place to wander? I wonder what else there is for us in the wilderness.

The wilderness can sometimes sound like the harsher version of phrases like, off the beaten path—the road less travelled—the unknown. 

So when life doesn’t follow the trajectory you had planned—when there’s no right answer or obvious solution—what can we embrace about the wilderness?

Fear or Faith in the Wilderness

To understand what the wilderness means for us, we need to look at where it first appears in Scripture. If you’ve been around church at all, you might think Israelites when you hear wilderness. But the first reference to the wilderness is actually at the very beginning of the Bible, in Genesis 3.

Adam and Eve were placed in a garden paradise and told to work it and keep it. After they allowed sin to enter into the world, they were banished from the Garden lest they eat also from the Tree of Life and live forever in this sinful state (Genesis 3:22).

Their banishment is into a wilderness of sorts. They are forced to work the land and toil for resources and learn to depend on God for their very lives. And generation after generation struggles through this test. Will they lean on God for direction, or forge their own path? Will they seek God in the highs and in the lows? Or will they trust the fear of what their eyes see over faith in who God is?

The Israelite ExperienceThis is essentially the Israelites’ claim to fame. After hundreds of years of oppression in Egypt, they are delivered out of slavery. A people miraculously delivered and free. But they still looked, smelled, and acted like the enslaved people they no longer were. It was generation after generation living without the agency to think for themselves or make decisions for themselves. So the first time they are faced with the choice to trust God over their fears, they blow it.

They ended up spending 40 years—an entire generation of people—learning how to be a people of God rather than a people enslaved. 

Like the Israelites, we often find that freedom doesn’t automatically make us faithful. Their story is a mirror of our own hearts. Don’t we have to learn this too?

I don’t want to live like a slave to my fear. A slave to every thoughtless whim or strong desire. I want to live like a child of God! The Israelites had to learn dependency. They had to learn obedience. And THEN they were ready to take on their real adversaries. Empowered, knowledgeable, and equipped to fulfill their calling. 

And I want to learn these too.

Unfortunately, our forefathers in the faith are not good examples or models to live by. They didn’t get to enter the Promised Land because of their own faithfulness, but because God remained faithful to his promise. Thankfully Jesus is the true Israelite who passed the wilderness test, and taught us how to do the same.

No one wants the wilderness. No one wants to wander around wasting time with limited resources and no end in sight. And yet, I know wilderness has shaped me in some of the best ways. If you’re willing to admit it, I think you’ll also find that we do our best growing in the wilderness.

Dependency Grows in the Wilderness

One of the most beautiful things that grows in the wilderness is dependency on God.

In our cultural moment, most of us don’t have urgent needs and can’t identify with that level of desperate dependency. But it isn’t about what level of need I have. It’s about living in willing dependance on God rather than seizing independence apart from him. Just as Jesus declared that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4), I want the wilderness to teach me that I don’t live by bread alone, but live each day trusting in God alone.

Dependency in my own wilderness looked like committing to regular Scripture reading even when I didn’t feel like it because I knew it was nourishing me. Or continuing to pray trusting that God’s silence didn’t mean his absence.

This is largely why I am so passionate about biblical literacy and why I gravitate towards exegetical preaching. I recognize I have my own limitations and biases so I want to lean on the wisdom of Jesus found in the Scriptures to teach me both how to live and to guide me through the wilderness.  

Obedience Grows in the Wilderness 

Sometimes we allow wilderness seasons to give us permission to soften our standards. Or, more like God’s standards. We roll our eyes at the Israelites who complained like it was their job but we do the same. I’m so thankful that Jesus shows us a better way. While the Israelites spent their wilderness years complaining, giving into idolatry, and unbelief, Jesus was disciplined. He was obedient to the Father, and stood against the temptations of the enemy. 

My experience of wilderness felt more like a hibernation. 

My days were spent humming with anxiety and my nights spent sleeping it all off. I didn’t feel like I was wandering, but stuck, and just waiting to die. Maybe your wilderness feels that way too—more like a pause than a journey. And yet hibernation doesn’t mean death. Sometimes it’s the slow work of God teaching us to wait, to breathe, to trust again.

But things do die in the wilderness! It’s a hostile environment. No way around that. It’s not the place we go to flourish and thrive. It’s where things go to die. If we’re honest with ourselves, we know that there are things about us that absolutely should die. Like that part of me that’s prone to self-preservation at all costs. The part that seeks comfort over growth. The part that looks to my own interests rather than the interests of others. 

If I choose to, I can grow obedience and discipline in the wilderness like Jesus exemplified for us. A willingness to not only live dependent on God, but obedient to what he has called me to. No more making excuses for myself being tired, stressed, or hormonal. 

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires (Galatians 5:24). 

One striking thing about this verse in light of “wilderness” is that Jesus was crucified outside the city, in a wilderness of sorts. Dragged outside, his flesh crucified but with OUR passions and desires and sin. Now, we are invited to leave all of those at the foot of the cross, in the wilderness, and then gaze up in wonder at a God who would willingly endure the harshest wilderness on our behalf in order to make a way for us to follow him into the garden paradise we were created for. 

Perhaps the most powerful thing about the wilderness experience is to realize that you’re not wandering, but being led. Just like Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Spirit of God. You didn’t take a wrong turn if you find yourself in a season of drought. There’s nothing wrong with you, it’s part of being human—a normal part of the human experience. And the beautiful thing to discover in the wilderness isn’t a thing at all, but a Person. To find Jesus in the wandering. To find Jesus in the wilderness. That’s why he went there first. To experience all that we do, to sympathize with our weaknesses, and to find us in our own wandering as we’re looking for him.

Finding Jesus in the Wilderness

So if you find yourself in a wilderness season, don’t rush through it. Don’t despise it. Ask God what he might be forming in you while you’re there. Maybe he’s teaching you to depend on him again. Maybe he’s cultivating obedience that can only grow in barren places. The wilderness is not wasted when it leads you closer to the heart of God.

Reflect & Respond:

1. Ask: What season in my life has felt like a wilderness? How might God have been shaping my dependency or obedience there?

2. Practice: Choose one small way to depend on God daily. Consider pausing before reacting, praying before deciding, or read Scripture before scrolling.

3. Surrender: Identify one “thing that needs to die” in this season—fear, control, pride—and leave it at the cross.

4. Remember: Like Jesus’ experience, the wilderness is not punishment; it’s preparation.

What’s in the Ears

This is the part where I share a song or podcast I’m currently into. This recommendation is actually for grade school children and one that my 7 year old especially enjoys. It’s called Tiny Theologians. They put together a narrative story that follows and boy and girl in every day life as they learn important theological terms in alphabetical order like Atonement, Baptism, and Communion. Let me know if you or your tiny theologians check it out!

If this stirred something in you, share this post with a friend or drop a comment below. I’d love to hear what small step you’re taking towards the flourishing life today! And don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss a thing.

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