I know God works. I know good is happening. I know grace and forgiveness, the lifeblood of discipleship is real and is working some how some where. I know there is joy and peace and true life found in the here and now. I also know that sometimes the follower of Jesus ends up in the desert.

How do you deal with the dry times? How do you continue to follow when all you see in front of you is a dry dead desert? I’m past the shallow modern day wishful thinking that tells us a positive attitude will win the day and God wants you to be happy and will do whatever it takes to make you happy. I see through the “your best life now” bull that refuses to deal with reality. I want to know if the disciple who finds himself in a desert sits and wait for God to lead him out of it or if there is something he’s supposed to do to get himself out?

I keep landing in Hebrews 11. Not the fun first part where God shows up and every story has a happy ending. I’m talking about that huge but in the middle of vs. 35. But others were tortured, refusing to turn from God in order to be set free. They placed their hope in a better life after the resurrection. Some were jeered at and their backs were cut open with whips. Others were chained in prison. Some died by stoning, some were sawed in half, and others were killed by the sword. Some went about wearing skins of sheep and goats, destitute oppressed and mistreated. What about these losers? They lived in the desert and no one came to help. No one came and made life better. These folks just toughed it out and hung on for dear life.

These are the people I want to talk to. These are the saints that I want to sit with and ask how in the world did you hang on? Its people with scars, burns, broken bones and deformities that I want to be around. I have little use for the follower who seems to have everything in place, all the answers and no scars. It’s the disciple who is so beat up their on life support who draws my attention.

Maybe I have answered my own question. Grace and forgiveness look like scars and deformities the majority of the time. When people hang on in spite of suffering, maybe that is the true essence of grace.