Walking in Circles

I had just started my daily devotional. I follow the Daily Office from the Book of Common Prayer and utilize the following website:
http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html.

The Opening Sentence was the following:
In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Isaiah 40:3

I did not even get started before I was stopped in my tracks. Sometimes a phrase or bit of Scripture has that unique ability to say volumes in just a few words. I read and re-read this sentence numerous times, chewing on it like a cow. This is the rabbit trail my thoughts took.

So many times in my life, I have found myself in the back side of the desert, sometimes because of self-exile and sometimes because I was led there. It seem that I have spent much time wandering in the wilderness, just like the people of Israel, wandering with no clear or discernible course. The above Scripture exhorts me to "prepare the way of the Lord."

Prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness? What do you mean? I can't even seem to find my own way, let alone the "way of the Lord." Yet that is what I am told to do.

It goes on to say, "Make straight in the desert a highway for our God."
Straight! How can I make anything straight when all I seem to be doing is walking (and sometimes running) in circles? Lapping the mountain yet again! The straightest line between two points for me seems to include a few 90 and 180 degree angles and lots of back-tracking to see if I can find the point where I last lost the trail.

Yet scripture clearly gives me a path, so to speak, out of the desert. It happens when I prepare the way for the Lord by making a straight highway for God to get straight to me. I mean, isn't there a reason that I'm in the desert? Could it be that God has led me there to straighten out things in my life, things that make me crooked and bent? My cry is that I become more like Him. But when He takes me on a tour of the backside of the desert, I want off of the tour bus.
It is my job to prepare to meet my maker in the here and now.

Preparation takes lots of hard work.

Have you ever been to the desert? I have. Its hot as you know where, dry with not a drop of water and goes on for what seems like eternity. And most roads seem to go, well, you guessed it, straight. Why? To get across it as fast as you can! Virtually no one I know wants to spend any more time than necessary there. Yet I seem almost always take the longest route possible. Creating a road in the desert is dusty, hard, back-breaking work. Digging in unforgiving rock, the pick ax, heavy in my hand, causing blisters and gives me splinters.

But my heart is hard and it takes a long time to soften it up for use.

Since I have lots of time invested in the desert, I can speak as an experienced guide. I have learned that my time in the desert is not necessarily wasted. I have learned what plants I can get nourishment from, the location of the secret watering holes, greatly appreciating the occasional rain storm which bring refreshing and life-giving moisture. This moisture in turn causes the desert to bloom into valleys of gorgeous color and fragrance. I have become more attuned to the rhythm of the seasons, which have brought a restfulness and patience to my hurried and busy life, my bruised and battered soul. By slowing down, I can hear God more clearly.

Don't be too eager to find the escape route from your place in the desert. In your haste to leave, you may miss the best parts!

Glad I got past that Opening Sentence!
Traveler