Not coincidence...

Wow, two blog posts in the same month. What is the world coming to?

So continuing to go off of my whole "I love the wilderness" epiphany from the other day, I listened to one of my favorite songs by Jars of Clay on my way to work today. This is from their "Eleventh Hour" CD. I highly recommend this entire CD.

Anyways, the song:

"Silence"

Take
Take till there's nothing
Nothing to turn to
Nothing when you get through
Won't you break
Scattered pieces of all I've been
Bowing to all I've been
Running to
Where are you?
Where are you?

Did you leave me unbreakable?
You leave me frozen?
I've never felt so cold
I thought you were silent
And I thought you left me
For the wreckage and the waste
On an empty beach of faith
Was it true?

Cuz I...I got a question
I got a question
Where are you?

Scream
Deeper I wanna scream
I want you to hear me
I want you to find me
Cuz I...I want to believe
But all I pray is wrong
And all I claim is gone

And I...I got a question
I got a question
Where are you?
Yeah....yeah
And where...I...I got a question
I got a question
Where are you?
Where are you?
Where are you?
Where are you

I remember first listening to this CD when I was in Belfast doing my DTS with YWAM. I had a good friend named Paul who was going through a wilderness period. Maybe his first ever. He let me borrow this CD because it spoke to him about his time of silence. I definitely found solace in these words as well. I could relate because I had recently gone through my own first major wilderness.

The times of praying to God and hearing nothing. The tears--many. The questions. Why me? What did I do wrong?
The pleading. Please don't leave me God, I need You.

Ah--the point. The point of the wilderness is for us to recognize the deep significance of those three little words--I need You.

So if you have known God for a little time or for a long time, know that your times of quiet, silence, solitude; the times when you think God is not listening--maybe that He's not even there anymore. Well, remember that the wilderness is okay. It's normal. It's necessary to draw us back to God. And, oftentimes, it is proof that God is actually indeed working in our life. He's taking us to the next stage. He's calling us to truly cast off the "stuff" and only be left with our desire, our need for Him.

In Him is life. When you come away from all that you've made life to be. When you find yourself consumed with work, school, realtionships, stuff, money, power, etc. Look for your real life. It's in Him.

John 1:3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4In him was life, and that life was the light of men.