I occasionally purposely leave the comforts of life to go into the wilderness of Canada’s interior—miles away from cell reception. There’s a time for the everyday mundane, but there’s also a time for adventure. There’s a time for pushing yourself to your extremes to see what you’ve got, in order to get more of what you don’t. And each time I’ve gone to a place like India or Canada, I’ve come out different, better, stronger, braver, and definitely more appreciative of what I have here.
The Bible says that the Holy Spirit “drove” Jesus into the wilderness. Wilderness was the proving ground where Jesus would get the divine energy that can only come through tempting, testing, and hardship.
You know it: People acquainted with hardship are typically stronger, wiser, and broken. That’s why Paul told Timothy to “endure hardship.” We need to be broken. I don’t trust people who aren’t broken. There is a very, very short list of people that I would call in the middle of the night when everything is falling apart—and the one thing that each of those people have is that they are broken.
So I say consider seeking out some kind of wilderness experience: (1) To show God, the devil, the world, and yourself that you got what it takes. And if you have Christ, you have everything and this is never proven truer than it is in the wilderness. (2) To shed all distraction in order to connect with God in a unique and powerful way. Here, in our climate-controlled bubbles, it’s almost like we hide behind all our busyness. Busyness is so noble, we think, and we equate it with importance. And isn’t that convenient? We can kill two birds with one stone: We can feel important and hide from all the deeper issues of life. But busyness will never do anything to remedy your deepest issues. It may treat symptoms, but that’s about it. Wilderness-like experiences are the remedy. When all is stripped away, and only God is left, there is healing and vision.